Eleanor & Park

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Eleanor & Park is a2013 novel by Rainbow Rowell for teenagers . The story of the book is told alternately from the perspective of Eleanor and Park, whoattend the same schoolin Omaha , Nebraska, USA . It begins in 1986 and extends over a school year. At first glance, Eleanor and Park are two completely different young people who can't stand each other at first, but still get closer and, despite the resulting problems, begin an unexpected and complicated love affair.

It is the first youth novel by the author Rainbow Rowell, who won numerous prizes with Eleanor & Park and was nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize 2016.

action

Park Sheridan is 16 years old and has lived in Omaha, Nebraska, all his life. His parents, the mother, a native of Korea, the father of a former American soldier who was stationed in the country during the Korean War , lovingly care for him and his brother. In contrast to his father and even his younger brother, Park is rather small and skinny, which is why Park believes, among other things, that his father is disappointed in him. He also doesn't value Taekwondo training as much as his father and brother. His interests are more in punk music and comics. Although he rarely gets into trouble at school, Park is a shy student who has little self-confidence due to his lack of height and Asian descent.

Eleanor Douglas, on the other hand, grew up in completely different circumstances. She is the oldest of her mother's five children, who live with her stepfather, Richie, in a small house that has only two bedrooms. Eleanor shares one with her sister and three brothers. There is only one bathroom in the house, which has neither a door nor curtains for the bathtub, as Richie does not want to allow them. The children and especially Eleanor's mother are abused both mentally and physically by Richie, who is mostly drunk, even if her mother usually manages to protect the children from him. Nevertheless, they are emotionally troubled by him and live under constant fear. The family's financial situation is also precarious; the most basic items, such as a toothbrush or shower gel for the children, are missing. Since she lacks suitable and new clothes, Eleanor wears patched, rarely matching and colorfully combined outfits, which is why she is bullied at school. She has just moved back into her stepfather's house after he had thrown her out a year earlier, which Eleanor had spent on the couch with friends of the family.

At the start of her first day of school, Eleanor is bullied by her classmates because of her overweight and appearance. Park also finds her strange at first; on her first day, he brusquely asks her to sit next to him on the school bus. They have several subjects together that Park notices that Eleanor is a very good student. However, they need some time before they even exchange their first words on the school bus. By reading comic books and listening to music, the two begin to gradually get closer, while Eleanor continues to be bullied at school and at home. In addition to derogatory remarks and nicknames, for example, her locker in the gym locker room is covered with sanitary towels and someone writes offensive and obscene notes on her books. Richie terrorizes her and her mother, he's drunk almost every night. One evening Eleanor hears gunshots and calls the emergency service, who does not believe her, but Richie, even though he lies to the police officers about the events. She tries to isolate herself further from Richie and to avoid him.

Eleanor tries to keep all of this away from Park, which she is getting closer and closer to. Park, initially confused by the fact that Eleanor has neither a phone nor batteries for his cassette player, spends more and more time with her. They have to do this in secret, however, because Richie would not allow Eleanor to have a boyfriend and she is also afraid that her siblings could betray her to Richie. When Eleanor spends a weekend with her birth father, who also has little contact with her, Park confesses his love for her. This is initially uncomfortable for her, as she suffers from a lack of self-confidence and social insecurity. A first meeting with Park's parents is also very unhappy.

After Park realizes that Eleanor is still being bullied by other students, one day he loses control and gets into a fight with Steve, the leader of the students who bully Eleanor the most. He lands a taekwondo kick and seriously injures Steve, even if Park injures his nose and has a black eye. His mother is furious and gives him house arrest believing Eleanor is a bad influence on him, while his father is apparently proud of his son and knows about Richie's alcohol addiction. However, after Parks' mother sees Eleanor's family out shopping, she allows her son to let Eleanor spend time at their home. Eleanor overcomes her initial discomfort in the presence of Park's family and spends more and more time at his home. She continuously lies to her family about her whereabouts. One day her mother reports to Eleanor that her uncle has offered to spend the summer with him in Minnesota and go through a program for particularly gifted students, which Richie declines without discussion.

After Eleanor spends almost every afternoon and evening at Park for several weeks, Park's mother convinces the two of them to spend an afternoon on the town. Eleanor and Park come very close physically for the first time. When Eleanor comes home from the excursion, she gets into a loud argument between Richie and her mother, which she avoids. In her room, she discovers that her personal effects and gifts from Park have been destroyed. She realizes that it was Richie who wrote the hateful notes on her books for her. Shocked, she escapes from the house and finds refuge in Steve's garage, which, to her surprise, gives her temporary shelter before they alert Park together. She tells him about all the things that she has previously kept secret from him, and the two decide that it is best if Eleanor leaves immediately to see her uncle in Minnesota. Park offers to drive her there. When Park tries to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, he is caught by his father. To his surprise, however, the latter gives Park permission to drive Eleanor after he learns about the incidents from Park. Park drives Eleanor to Minnesota, where he leaves her with a heavy heart at her uncle's house. Eleanor's uncle and aunt take them in and also discuss getting their siblings to safety from Richie.

In the weeks and months that followed, Park wrote her letters and sent her small gifts almost every day, but got no answer. Park is frustrated and tries to forget her, which he fails. A short time later, Eleanor's siblings and mother also leave town. Park often strolls longingly past her old house, hoping to see her there one day. Instead he meets Richie, who comes home very drunk. Park, angry with past events, toyed with the idea of ​​killing him, but does not and leaves him unscathed. After the prom, which Park was supposed to attend with Eleanor, he receives a postcard from Minnesota with only three words in Eleanor's handwriting.

reception

criticism

Rainbow Rowell's first youth novel was received largely positively. Thus achieving Eleanor & Park on the reading platform GoodReads a rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on more than 640,000 users reviews.

Critics also largely praised the book. Kirkus Reviews called the book "funny, hopeful, vulgar, sexy and sentimental", it would "captivate both teenagers and adults." In a guest post in The New York Times , author John Green called Eleanor & Park a "beautiful, unforgettable love story" which, thanks to its “precision and variety of observations, ensures a special reading experience.” The book not only reminded him of what it means to be young and in love, but also of what it means to be young and in love with a book In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Christine Knödler found Eleanor & Park to be above all “the narrative speed, the deceleration, the focus in all the noise and chaos on the silence of an impossible, at least improbable approach” as extraordinary. Felicitas von Lovenberg considered Rowell's novel in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to be “cleverly built [and] rousingly written”, but she found the opposing dynamics of Eleanor and Park's parents' houses to be “unnecessary in terms of tension and psychologically unsatisfactory.” Eleanor & Park became in 2016 nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize. In its justification, the jury praised the fact that the book deals with the topics of great love, outsiders, bullying and domestic violence . The prevailing dialogue structure "admittedly takes the pace of the action - but this proves to be narrative sophistication, as it emphasizes the careful approach between the two youngsters."

Awards (selection)

filming

DreamWorks and Carla Hacken announced in 2014 that they were planning a film adaptation of Eleanor & Park , for which Rowell would write the script. However, Rowell confirmed in August 2016 that production of the film has been stopped. In May 2019, it was announced that Picturestart and Plan B had acquired the film rights to the novel.

expenditure

The English and German first editions as well as the first edition of the respective paperback are listed . There are also other editions.

Text output

English

German

Audio book

English

  • Rainbow Rowell: Eleanor & Park . Voiced by Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra. Listening Library, 2013, ISBN 978-1-5247-2353-8 .

German

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. In: Kirkus Reviews. December 2, 2012, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  2. ^ John Green : Two Against the World - 'Eleanor & Park,' by Rainbow Rowell. In: The New York Times . March 8, 2013, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Christine Knödler: Hands find each other like heartbeats . Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ Felicitas von Lovenberg : Shakespeare, the old prankster. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 26, 2015, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Eleanor & Park. In: German Youth Literature Prize . Retrieved March 14, 2018 .
  6. ^ Notable Children's Books of 2013. In: The New York Times . November 27, 2013, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  7. ^ Megan Willett, The Best New Books Of The Year, According To Goodreads. In: Business Insider . December 3, 2013, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Michael L. Printz Winners and Honor Books. In: American Library Association . Accessed March 14, 2018 (English).
  9. ↑ 2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature. In: The Horn Book Magazine . May 31, 2013, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  10. ^ ILA Children's and Young Adults' Book Awards. In: International Reading Association . Accessed March 14, 2018 (English).
  11. ↑ Cindy Elavsky: Celebrity Extra. In: Times-Herald and Sunday Times. April 27, 2014, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Marama Whyte: Sorry Rainbow Rowell fans, the 'Eleanor & Park' movie isn't happening. In: Hypable. September 12, 2016, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Mike Fleming Jr .: Picturestart, Plan B Team For Film Adaptation Of Rainbow Rowell bestseller 'Eleanor & Park'. In: Deadline. May 14, 2019, accessed on May 28, 2019 .