Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I first read Eleanor & Park back in 2013 and it absolutely wrecked me. This little YA romance made me cry real, ugly tears. I've shed a tear before now and again while reading, but this was different. Something in this story hit me just right and I literally sobbed at the end. It instantly became one of my favorites. Rainbow Rowell has written a handful of novels since this time and I haven't read most of them, so it was an easy decision to revisit Eleanor and Park as one of my Then Versus Now challenge books. It also fits in perfectly with my new StoryGraph Onboarding reading challenge. I started off my reading wondering whether I would be affected the same way I was the first time I read this, or if my feelings would have changed. It ended up being a lot more complicated than that.

Eleanor and Park is an overwhelmingly character-driven novel, so there isn't a lot of plot to describe. Essentially, the entire story centers around the growing romantic relationship between Eleanor Douglas and Park Sheridan, two misfit high school students in Nebraska in 1986. Eleanor is the new girl in town, and her wild mane of red hair and unusual fashion sense instantly make her a target for bullying. She mostly ignores her cruel classmates and focuses her attention on surviving her home life, which isn't easy. Her family lives in poverty and her stepfather is becoming increasingly abusive. Park is a quiet kid that tries to be on good terms with everyone by keeping a low profile. He's half-Korean, and this brings him some unwanted attention from his classmates in the form of ignorant remarks and stereotyping, but he is generally well-liked. He has a pretty good home life too. His family is comfortable financially and his only struggle is meeting the expectations of his father, who he senses is disappointed in his lack of "manliness." 

The pair meet on the school bus one morning, when a lack of open seats forces them together. At first they barely acknowledge each other's presence, but over the course of the school year, they slowly fall in love. The narration switches back and forth between the pair as they discover their feelings for each other and start a romantic relationship. They come to care deeply for each other, but they have to continually sneak around to avoid the notice of Eleanor's stepfather, who has forbidden her to date. When his abusive behavior starts to escalate, the pair must make some difficult choices to keep Eleanor safe.

What this story does extremely well is capture the giddy passion of first love. The relationship between the protagonists feels very genuine and is easy to get lost in. Rowell does an excellent job of making you care about these two misfits. Just like with the first time I read the novel, I was rooting for Eleanor and Park and felt invested in their story. I didn't quite reach the level of sobbing at the ending again, but I think that knowing it was coming ahead of time was a factor in that. 

I was distracted on this second read, however, by how much of the story really hasn't aged well. A lot of the lines regarding Park's Korean heritage made me cringe. In particular, the character of his mother had some issues. She speaks in broken English that feels stereotypical and is almost painful to read now. At one point, she is described as a "china doll," a characterization that is tired and infantilizing. Park also makes several comments that point to a deep self loathing, like a belief that Asian men aren't masculine, for example, that are never really addressed in the text. This begs the question as to why they were included in the first place. Things that I somehow missed on the first reading seemed glaringly obvious now and I was pretty uncomfortable at several points throughout the novel. Over time, I have definitely become more aware of how racism sneaks into writing, and all my alarm bells were going off as I was reading this second time. This book was written in 2013. Rowell probably should have been more sensitive to these issues and I should have been more aware as a reader when I was first encountering them. That being said, I don't think she was deliberately trying to be hurtful at all. I do think that there are real concerns here though, and that they make this novel problematic for a modern reader. This article contains a good summary of what's troubling, if you are interested in learning more.

So now I'm left with deciding exactly how I feel about this novel. When I first read it, it was far and away my favorite young adult novel. Now, however, I don't know if I can say that anymore. I undoubtedly had an important and memorable experience when I read it for the first time, and I do still appreciate the bones of the story. I still love Rowell's writing and I still love both Eleanor and Park as characters. However, I can't overlook its racial issues either. A quick search on Google will turn up lots of other people that take issue with these elements too, so I know I'm not alone here. I can't recommend this book to anyone in good conscience anymore due to how absolutely cringe-inducing many passages are. I guess I'm just stuck in the middle. I like the book, and I treasure the memory of the first time I read it, but I also fully acknowledge that it has problems too. I'm going to refrain from rating it here, and make a note on my favorites page about my concerns. I don't want to forget how deeply I loved this book the first time I read it, but I also can't consider it a true favorite anymore.     

Eleanor and Park has recently come back into the spotlight on Twitter, as Rowell has recently made an announcement that this novel will be made into a movie. Many, many people commented on the racial problems in the text on her Twitter thread, but as of this post, Rowell has chosen not to acknowledge the criticisms. This is disappointing, to say the least. I don't think there would be any harm in admitting that some passages were rough and will be changed for the upcoming film. I'm hoping that the movie version will do this anyway, and update some of the dialogue in order to correct these issues.  As for me, I'm going to try two more of Rowell's works next for the second half of my Then vs. Now Challenge, and hope that her newer novels don't have similar problems.

Challenge Tally

Then vs. Now: 13/27

StoryGraph Onboarding 2020 Challenge: 1/12

Total Books Read in 2020: 50