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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
slow-paced
This one was bizarre, as expected, and--for the lack of a better word--cinematic. Reading it felt like peeking out from behind your fingers because you're scared to watch what Eileen does but you just can't stop. I picked this one up because I was looking for 'Lapvona,' also by Moshfegh, but am glad to have stumbled across 'Eileen.' If you like horror (and light body horror), this one is good and relatively short.
I was so easily swayed by the vestiges of power.It wasn't until after I finished that I realized that the cover had had me expecting another [b:Ice|636223|Ice|Anna Kavan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328830578s/636223.jpg|622507], albeit with bisexual women at the forefront and men somewhere over yonder posing as filler. This was technically what I got, but I wanted more: more phantasmagoric prose, more subtle creep, more intimations of the lust for power passing from father to daughter in richer ways than another iteration of Chekov's gun. Here and there a flash of the quote above raised its head, but all in all, the writing fit to a tee its construct of an older character recounting their sordid bildungsroman in all its conversational, prosaic, and uninspiring ways. No, I don't believe in people who speak like Vera or Bouraoui write, but I don't to talk to people for my personal pleasure two to three hours a day, now do I.
If you ever decide to devote yourself to reading books by women of color for a full year, be prepared to have great swathes taken out of various genres. This is why I was mildly thrilled to come across [b:Eileen|23453099|Eileen|Ottessa Moshfegh|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1423783612s/23453099.jpg|43014905] straddling that nonexistent line of genre literature with the genre being, of all things, noir. I've been increasingly avoiding that four letter word over the years of a waning relationship with Raymond Chandler and reviews of his fellow ilk, so to delve in again was a treat, to say the least. However, and this is why I'm amused that Eugenides has a blurb on the back of this, seeing as how this is the same issue I had with his [b:Middlesex|2187|Middlesex|Jeffrey Eugenides|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437029776s/2187.jpg|1352495]: the book stops just as the fun begins. Glaring deconstruction of femininity, reconstruction of feminine lust, a marvelous juxtaposition of the glitz and glamour of late 50's/early 60's with the horrid health conditions that fed that breed of voracious materialism, yes, yes, yes, but what I wanted was a sexual tension reserved in toto by women coupled to some thrills and a good old fashioned mystery, of which I got, ten? Maybe fifteen pages. I've got [b:The Price of Salt|52258|The Price of Salt|Patricia Highsmith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388193744s/52258.jpg|50983] in my view, but I'm fairly confident that'll be less creepy.
Ah well. It's not a surprise one of my rare instances of self-indulgence (leastwise in public purview) didn't fulfill the quota I had reserved for it. However, I can say for certain that I could write a number of good essays about all the subversion going on in all of this. Gender's only one axis, sexuality another, and both are severely hampered when common consensus assumes a dichotomy, but when the genre's something as entrenched as noir, a little can go a long way.
There's nothing I detest more than men with happy childhoods.
I would give this 3.5-4 stars. It is definitely an interesting and gripping read, but not as much for the story itself rather the character of Eileen and her narration.
I felt a roller coaster of emotions for her; pity, sadness, disgust, horror, even compersion sometimes. She is a very raw and real person with those emotions/thoughts people are more sympathetic too, but also those more horrible and intrusive thoughts people can sometimes have and immediately push away in derision. I found aspects of her very relatable and others deeply disturbing, which is interesting seeing aspects of relation in conjunction with disdain in the same person within a few pages.
The story was so-so to me. I think it was relatively predictable, but again it felt more like the fluff and background to the overall character of Eileen.
I felt a roller coaster of emotions for her; pity, sadness, disgust, horror, even compersion sometimes. She is a very raw and real person with those emotions/thoughts people are more sympathetic too, but also those more horrible and intrusive thoughts people can sometimes have and immediately push away in derision. I found aspects of her very relatable and others deeply disturbing, which is interesting seeing aspects of relation in conjunction with disdain in the same person within a few pages.
The story was so-so to me. I think it was relatively predictable, but again it felt more like the fluff and background to the overall character of Eileen.
This was a bit too slow of a burn for me, but I think I’ll read everything that Ottessa Moshegh writes. She is so good! She creates these remarkably literary worlds where everything—the snow, a car, icicles on the roof, a pair of shoes, a gun, a bottle of booze—it’s all so full of meaning. Her characters are also fucking nutty. They’re all so batshit, but still somehow like all of us? She takes character traits, in this case self-loathing, to the absolute extreme, and still leaves room for growth and change. And I love the way she does endings; that saved it for me. Love an authoritative narrator telling me how it all shakes out. This line got me: “I felt a great urge to look at photographs from my childhood, to kiss and caress the young faces in those snapshots. I kissed myself in the mirror—something I used to do as a child—and went down the stairs one final time.”
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
How can one dislike a character this much and still be interested in her story? Did I like her at the end? Was part of me invested in her from the very first page? Am I in denial?
And how did I manage to enjoy reading this book? This unsettling, unpleasant, and dark story.
Officially a Moshfegh fan.
And how did I manage to enjoy reading this book? This unsettling, unpleasant, and dark story.
Officially a Moshfegh fan.
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Girl was weird as hell but not in a cute way. It was well written but I truly did not care what was happening until the last 30 pages or so. I think it could have said a lot more than it did. Weird and shocking for the sake of it is boring to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Rape, Vomit