Eleanor Rigby

Liz Dunn is a heavy, homely, lonely office worker who is on the wrong side of forty. Her job is boring, so is her condo and she is friendless to boot. She watches re-runs of Law and Order for excitement. She has personality quirks that she keeps subverted. As a young girl she found the body of a dead transvestite and, rather than being frightened or disgusted, she lifted the fellow's skirt with a stick to see what was underneath. She used to sneak into neighbours' houses when they weren't home, not to steal but to experience their lives. At sixteen she had a child. Because she was overweight no one knew she was pregnant. Even her parents only found out when she was in the throes of labour. She gave the baby up for adoption and it remained a secret she and her parents kept from everyone else, even her siblings. Her now adult son, Jeremy, enters her life in a dramatic fashion and her loneliness disappears. Others begin to see her in a different way, as someone who has a life and a past; Liz is no longer invisible.
Jeremy has apocalyptic visions (readers of Coupland will not be surprised by this); he also has MS. Despite a nightmarish childhood (for which Liz seems to feel no responsibility) Jeremy is mature, intelligent, handsome and possesses superior social skills and a keen insight into others. He and Liz love each other immediately and, remarkably, their relationship is completely devoid of conflict. That part is easier to swallow than the airport fiasco and the reunion with Jeremy's father that seem like contrivances to make extra stuff happen (quick!) before the novel ends. I found Eleanor Rigby to be borderline glib and emotionally light but it sends out a positive and hopeful message and is peppered with moments of wit that make it more than just readable.