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anitaboeira's review against another edition
3.0
i dont think I get the ending??? Like I get the book, but the ending confused me? Maybe I shouldn't been listening to it while working
abigailcomptonxox's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
swarley's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
dancingwithcurls's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
khaufnaak's review against another edition
4.0
I think this book was a masterful depiction of depression. The famous unlikable woman trope is utilized well here. I think the way one reads this books may partially be more telling of one’s own thought process than of the nature of the book, because I have not deep dived into the author’s interviews, I do not know her intent. I think the depiction is not to get us to dislike depressed people, but to rather recognize the distasteful qualities we see in our loved ones, and realize this is the famed depression we hear of. So, I enjoyed reading this book, experiencing being the protagonist. It was like a look into the phenomenology of being a very dislikable depressed person.
I also disliked this book. Whenever someone asked me if I liked the book as I was reading it, I couldn’t confidently say yes, because, well, it was a little cringey. The main character had an almost ever lasting confidence in her beauty, even when she walked (likely unshaven, not that facial hair is bad, but how are you free from the shackles of societal expectations) with drool caked on her chin, to a bodega manned by Egyptian men she considered attractive. A woman experiencing her mental breakdown was romanticized, as beautiful and, I don’t know, pensive? This is a trope authors who are men usually fall into, so it’s interesting to see this here.
What frustrated me most when it came to the book, where the last two chapters. The protagonist experiences some rushed pseudo spiritual experience where she is terrified by the prospect of coming out of the hibernation in approximately three days (reasonable), falls into a deep nothingness and pulled out by the hands of some cosmic power (or the man who she has asked to keep her locked in her apartment). She then awakens to herself sitting cross-legged, ready to leave hibernation. She eventually starts going out, feeding animals, going thrift shopping. Excuse me, what?! You can’t just, you can’t just suddenly switch from this, deep depths of depression to a sudden level of world loving productivity! Who does that? What is this a metaphor for? What is it satire of? Satire of people who think you’ll just wake up one day ready to go? Is it cause she stretching a little every three days? I don’t understand!
Throughout the story as we hear about her friend Reva, I like many readers became concerned she may die in the World Trade Center during 9/11. I was hoping the story would end before 9/11 would occur, because there is always this concern American authors will make some artificially sad fanfare honoring the people who died. And the author does, Reva dies and the author mourns her death, watching a tape of a woman falling out of the towers for years to come. The story has not come full circle, she has not entered a new state of depression. It would have been much better had she been depressed-ly apathetic to the events during 9/11, however she magically develops some fond feelings towards Reva after her 4 months blank apartment rehab.
Perhaps the author meant to show that this is who the protagonist is when she is not hibernating. But even when we hear about the protagonist in the past, it doesn’t seem like she is quite the way she is at the end. Is this her, free from the burdens of her traumas? Truly rested and relaxed? Is the idea that perhaps depression is a justified and beneficial inclination, a means to an end? That would be a interesting premise. However, even so, a transition to such a state is just not communicated well enough. The reader experiences the protagonists depression. The readers should also be lead through her path to spiritual enlightenment and revitalization in the same meandering manner in which we are lead through her depression! It’s almost as we are left behind in her depression and she moves on inconceivably into something else!
So, the book’s writing is good. It’s easy to read, it is engaging, you experience something, whatever it feels like to be the protagonist. There are moments of exhilaration and suspense, where the protagonist nears catharsis, she tells her friend authentically that she loves her after her mother dies. You relate with both Reva and the protagonist, you want to be better, the best, you want to be decrepit, and rest! Reva, despite her incessant annoyances and disappearance from the protagonists’ life (even before her own death), is actually a great character and person! She consistently stays there for the protagonist, when she steals her medicine, it’s a push towards, well, I guess a deeper more motivated depression. That leads to something better? Or bad? Is the point that Reva actually led to the character’s death? Is her final hibernation just a process into death which ends in an eternal slumber, satirized as her living a happy life forever remembering Reva? Ignore me, there isn’t really evidence for such a theory in the text.
Okay, so I got swept up by another tangent there. Point is, it’s an interesting experience to be the protagonist. The conclusion, well, is still not a great conclusion. The author doesn’t lead us through it as well as she leads us through the protagonists depression. But I still recommend this book, because, you know, the experience. Either you’ll feel seen, learn something about yourself, or both, I hope.
I also disliked this book. Whenever someone asked me if I liked the book as I was reading it, I couldn’t confidently say yes, because, well, it was a little cringey. The main character had an almost ever lasting confidence in her beauty, even when she walked (likely unshaven, not that facial hair is bad, but how are you free from the shackles of societal expectations) with drool caked on her chin, to a bodega manned by Egyptian men she considered attractive. A woman experiencing her mental breakdown was romanticized, as beautiful and, I don’t know, pensive? This is a trope authors who are men usually fall into, so it’s interesting to see this here.
What frustrated me most when it came to the book, where the last two chapters. The protagonist experiences some rushed pseudo spiritual experience where she is terrified by the prospect of coming out of the hibernation in approximately three days (reasonable), falls into a deep nothingness and pulled out by the hands of some cosmic power (or the man who she has asked to keep her locked in her apartment). She then awakens to herself sitting cross-legged, ready to leave hibernation. She eventually starts going out, feeding animals, going thrift shopping. Excuse me, what?! You can’t just, you can’t just suddenly switch from this, deep depths of depression to a sudden level of world loving productivity! Who does that? What is this a metaphor for? What is it satire of? Satire of people who think you’ll just wake up one day ready to go? Is it cause she stretching a little every three days? I don’t understand!
Throughout the story as we hear about her friend Reva, I like many readers became concerned she may die in the World Trade Center during 9/11. I was hoping the story would end before 9/11 would occur, because there is always this concern American authors will make some artificially sad fanfare honoring the people who died. And the author does, Reva dies and the author mourns her death, watching a tape of a woman falling out of the towers for years to come. The story has not come full circle, she has not entered a new state of depression. It would have been much better had she been depressed-ly apathetic to the events during 9/11, however she magically develops some fond feelings towards Reva after her 4 months blank apartment rehab.
Perhaps the author meant to show that this is who the protagonist is when she is not hibernating. But even when we hear about the protagonist in the past, it doesn’t seem like she is quite the way she is at the end. Is this her, free from the burdens of her traumas? Truly rested and relaxed? Is the idea that perhaps depression is a justified and beneficial inclination, a means to an end? That would be a interesting premise. However, even so, a transition to such a state is just not communicated well enough. The reader experiences the protagonists depression. The readers should also be lead through her path to spiritual enlightenment and revitalization in the same meandering manner in which we are lead through her depression! It’s almost as we are left behind in her depression and she moves on inconceivably into something else!
So, the book’s writing is good. It’s easy to read, it is engaging, you experience something, whatever it feels like to be the protagonist. There are moments of exhilaration and suspense, where the protagonist nears catharsis, she tells her friend authentically that she loves her after her mother dies. You relate with both Reva and the protagonist, you want to be better, the best, you want to be decrepit, and rest! Reva, despite her incessant annoyances and disappearance from the protagonists’ life (even before her own death), is actually a great character and person! She consistently stays there for the protagonist, when she steals her medicine, it’s a push towards, well, I guess a deeper more motivated depression. That leads to something better? Or bad? Is the point that Reva actually led to the character’s death? Is her final hibernation just a process into death which ends in an eternal slumber, satirized as her living a happy life forever remembering Reva? Ignore me, there isn’t really evidence for such a theory in the text.
Okay, so I got swept up by another tangent there. Point is, it’s an interesting experience to be the protagonist. The conclusion, well, is still not a great conclusion. The author doesn’t lead us through it as well as she leads us through the protagonists depression. But I still recommend this book, because, you know, the experience. Either you’ll feel seen, learn something about yourself, or both, I hope.
aldole's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
marisacarpico's review against another edition
3.75
Really worked for me, frankly. This feels more painfully post-2016 and pre-pandemic than the 9/11-ish setting it's supposed to have, but the metaphor for depression and dissociation still mostly holds up. Our protagonist is a neurotic, self-obsessed nightmare person who is so barely holding onto life that she chooses to sleep through it instead. For me, that idea resonates with a certain level of debilitating grief. What a gift it would be to skip the worst of it and come out on the other side. There are some heavy-handed bits in the last act as 9/11 inevitably approaches, but this largely works as a picture of a certain state of mind.
I'm not totally convinced on Moshfegh considering how much I disliked Eileen and doing the audiobook for this may have softened her American Psycho-esque slavishness for mundane details.
I'm not totally convinced on Moshfegh considering how much I disliked Eileen and doing the audiobook for this may have softened her American Psycho-esque slavishness for mundane details.
kaiahe11's review against another edition
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5