I’m the guy who hated Romeo and Juliet (spare me captain boner and lady dumbass). I’m the guy who hated Wuthering Heights (go jump off a moor Heathcliff, I like the cat better anyway). I’m the guy who shakes his head at every protestation of love I ever hear from students, every hand-holding, sweetly embracing pair of fools who will end up in tears in just a few weeks.
I’m also the guy who nearly broke down crying at this book. Rainbow Rowell doesn’t try to oversell the seriousness of the relationship, it’s not life or death–but it may feel that way. She doesn’t try to make her characters more mature than their years (they seem downright childish at times), nor does she make it infantile crushing. You have to root for a pair of kids who seem so familiar to us all and so eager to live for the sake of living.
It’s a supremely sweet story, honest and exhilirating and a little bit brutal…just like teenage romance is.
Cannonball Read V 
This is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year, and I think your review was spot-on. Eleanor & Park was just so honest and heartbreaking. Fangirl is next on my tbr. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I initially thought you were about to say “I’m the guy who hated Eleanor and Park” in your opening line and was all ready to give my pitchfork a good sharpening… and then I kept reading. Glad you did, in fact, enjoy it! 🙂