Eleanor and Park
by Rainbow Rowell
Rating: ****
Read: 4/7/2013
This one kicked my feet out from under me and kept me up all night. Dawn’s rosy fingers found me still listening, with Dylan’s voice rasping in my head: “But all the while I was alone / The past was close behind.”
Incredibly emotionally affecting, the only thing keeping this from that final star is my feeling (probably biased) that Eleanor reads much, much younger than any of my compatriots in similar situations ever were at her age. And it’s probably not fair to judge this book on my own situation, but I was so deeply drawn in, so awash in my own youth, and the youth of my lost friends, that I can do no other.
The narration was top-notch, and the writing was stellar. I was entirely engrossed and invested. The ending was perfect, oh, so perfect.