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Eleanor and Park | April 17, 2013

by Rainbow Rowell (Feb. 2013, St. Martin's Griffin/Macmillan Children’s Books)

What finally moved me to pick up Rainbow Rowell’s ‘Eleanor and Park’ wasn’t the cover (though it’s gorgeous in its simplicity), or the flap copy (star-crossed misfits who fall in love!), or that amazing blurb by John Green (nerdfighters unite!), but a brilliant guest post by the author on unconventional beauties. I decided I needed to meet Eleanor and Park for myself, and I’m so glad I did.

In Omaha, 1986, Eleanor is the new girl on the school bus. With her vibrant red hair and weird clothes, she finds nowhere to sit except next to Park, a half-Korean boy, born to a war vet dad and a beauty salon mom. They’re outcasts, each in their own way – Eleanor poor and awkward, Park the only non-white person around for miles. They pass their daily commute without acknowledging one another, until Park senses that Eleanor is actually reading his comic books over his shoulder. Shared silence becomes companionship, then friendship, then more.

Told from alternating perspectives, we learn more about Eleanor and Park as the two learn about—and fall in love with—each other, over mix tapes and comic books. Without cliché, this is a love story, set against the backdrop of Park’s coming of age and Eleanor’s frightening family life. It is hopeful, gut-wrenching, deeply emotional, and at last, liberating—just how a love story should be.

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