Eleanor & Park

Citation

Rowell, R. (2013). Eleanor and Park. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Description

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.

So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.

I'm not kidding, he says.

You should be, she says, we're 16.

What about Romeo and Juliet?

Shallow, confused, then dead.

I love you, Park says.

Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.

I'm not kidding, he says.

You should be.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits-smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you'll remember your own first love-and just how hard it pulled you under.

YA Romance

Scholarly Review

Right from the start of this tender debut, readers can almost hear the clock winding down on Eleanor and Park. After a less than auspicious start, the pair quietly builds a relationship while riding the bus to school every day, wordlessly sharing comics and eventually music on the commute. Their worlds couldn’t be more different. Park’s family is idyllic: his Vietnam vet father and Korean immigrant mother are genuinely loving. Meanwhile, Eleanor and her younger siblings live in poverty under the constant threat of Richie, their abusive and controlling stepfather, while their mother inexplicably caters to his whims. The couple’s personal battles are also dark mirror images. Park struggles with the realities of falling for the school outcast; in one of the more subtle explorations of race and “the other” in recent YA fiction, he clashes with his father over the definition of manhood. Eleanor’s fight is much more external, learning to trust her feelings about Park and navigating the sexual threat in Richie’s watchful gaze. In rapidly alternating narrative voices, Eleanor and Park try to express their all-consuming love. “You make me feel like a cannibal,” Eleanor says. The pure, fear-laced, yet steadily maturing relationship they develop is urgent, moving, and, of course, heartbreaking, too.

[The Booklist Review, 2013]

My Analysis

Eleanor and Park begin their friendship with a rocky start. However, they start sharing comics and music on the bus rides to and from school. Their friendship slowly builds into a relationship. To quote The Fault in Our Stars, “slowly, and then all at once.” Park has the ideal family with loving parents and a happy home life. Eleanor, on the other hand, constantly has to avoid her abusive stepfather and lives in poverty. The novel is told through both Park’s and Eleanor’s points of view, and through the writing, the reader can feel their intense love for each other. This is a sweet love story, reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet.

I can see how this novel might be too mature for younger students, but I think that it is appropriate for high school. There are a few make out scenes, curse words, mild descriptions of abuse, and explicit writing in Eleanor’s textbook. I wouldn’t include this in a middle school library, but I would include it in a high school library or the young adult section in a public library.

Tags

abuse, romance, high school, first love

Usage

I think this would be a good book to use for a comparative book study. Most freshman are required to read Romeo and Juliet for their English classes, and Eleanor & Park contains similar themes and ideas. It would be interesting to teach both novels and do compare and contrast analyses or projects on them.

Awards

2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book for Excellence in Young Adult Literature

Censorship

The novel was challenged in Anoka High School in Minnesota because of the graphic language used in the novel, with one parent claiming that it was the most “obscene and profane work we have ever read in our lives.” The parents who challenged the novel sited 227 uses of profanity, which included 60 uses of the ‘F’ word.

The challenge was denied, and the principal of the school issued this statement: “We did acknowledge some of the language is rough, but it fits the situation and the characters. I deal with this stuff every day working in the school with students. Did I think the language was rough? Yes. There is some tough stuff in there, but a lot of the stuff our kids are dealing with is tough.”

http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=9248 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

References

Jones, C. (2013). Eleanor & park. The Booklist, 109(9), 98. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.uky.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uky.edu/docview/1271619172?accountid=11836 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Macmillan. (n.d.). Eleanor and park details. Retrieved from https://us.macmillan.com/eleanorpark/rainbowrowell/9781250127082/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Pekoll, K. (2017). Spotlight on censorship: ‘Eleanor and Park’. Retrieved from http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=9248 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.