Thoughts on Eleanor and Park

After reading Eleanor and Park I texted a friend and I asked him if I was the only person in the world that did not completely love Eleanor and Park. This friend loves this book, and he informed me that no, he did know other that did not love it, but that I am definitely in the minority.

I'm really not sure how to feel about Eleanor and Park. I had not read this book prior to class, but it is a title that has been built up so much for me. I've seen many positive reviews and have heard both classmates and teens that frequent my library's YA section profess their love for the novel and the characters. Even the children's librarian at my library loves it and put the characters on our bulletin board for Literary Sweethearts for Valentine's Day. When I checked on it's circulation, it has an extremely high circulation rate in my department in comparison to some other books I have in the collection.

Because of all this I expected to love Eleanor and Park as much as everyone else does. Except that I do not. I agree that it was an intriguing read, and I breezed through it in two days. I find it to be well written and a good story in general. I just don't feel the draw to the characters that everyone else seems to feel. I'm not denying that it is a good book, I'm just not feeling the love that everyone else does. I can see why teens love it and how some can relate to the circumstances of the story, but I feel that overall they won't necessarily understand all the references. I know about cassette tapes and trying to tape songs from the radio and from my parents' records. But I was also born around the time this novel takes place. Teens today may have never seen a cassette tape, and only know iPhones and Androids. Are they understanding these references? Would they love this book even more if it had been set in a more modern time? Possibly, as they could relate to it even more. The time period is not why I do not love it. I can relate to the time.

One could say that it is because I do not relate to any character in the book. However, I've read many books that have characters I do not relate to, that I love much more than this book. I can love a story that I do not relate too. But it would seem that I cannot love a story that has been built up so highly and is so revered, only to find that it really is not all that great.

Could I have loved this book had so many people not told me that it was amazing? Maybe. But that is not something I will ever know, because it was built up so highly. And unfortunately I am unable to feel the same as everyone else does about this book.