Book #10 Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park

Here's a copy of the cover for the UK version 

Want a feel-good romance to read during the semester break? Eleanor & Park is for you. Seriously, if you’re a child of the 80s, E&P will bring you back to the days of mixed tapes, comics, and school buses (ala John Hughes—the opening scene on the school bus, with it’s colorful use of cuss words seems quite realistic). Eleanor and Park are an unlikely pair thrown together through circumstance. This is the story of their love affair as sixteen year olds, and the type of friendship in which one will endure pain, triumph, and frustration just for a few moments to be with the one they love.

After reading this book, I wondered if the author set it in the 80s in part to appeal to readers like me. The New York Times reviewer of Rapture Practice made a similar case about that book, but my writer husband just says it’s probably the authors reliving their own childhood. I think I agree with him.

The theme of this book really seems to be captured by a comment Park makes about the lasting relevance of Romeo & Juliet “Because people want to remember what it’s like to be young[.] And in love[.]”  Rowell excels at this, and passages will make one remember what it was like really holding hands for the first time or the excitement of finding a moment to be alone together. And, there are the moments of embarrassment and cruelty we may or may not have experienced but were more than likely aware of. There are all sorts of parents in this book; and we find just as many loving, competent adults as we do incompetent, cruel ones.

Finally, thanks to Rowell for offering some hair tips for girls with curly hair (from the author picture on the jacket, it appears as if she has curly hair, too). As a teen who had hair that would never, could never, look like the other girls’, I think it’s important to encourage girls to embrace their individual looks.