Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Homesick for Another World

When I was reading the second story in this collection and the protagonist started thinking about sexual acts involving swimming in sewage, and then further details the acts this character performs on a young sex worker, I was going to stop reading, despite my aversion to not finishing books. I wish I had.

I was puzzled reading this about all the positive reviews I had seen of it. Every story seemed a pointless excuse for Moshfegh to describe something disgusting, insult a random fat side character, and call somebody r*tarded. A few of the later stories, such as Slumming, The Beach Boy, and A Better Place were (comparatively) charming and driven, but the abrupt endings in the latter of these two were discouraging.

The only saving grace I could find for these stories was that Moshfegh is clearly creative in thinking of vignettes of different shades of upsetting people. However, I don't feel as if her writing was strong enough to carry them. Each sentence was short and blunt. The simple sentences lent themselves to the subject matter I suppose, but it was not an artful or particularly nice reading experience. It read more like the begrudging English assignment of a super senior than that of a critically acclaimed author. Not to mention none of her characters were distinguishable from one another. All spoke with the same voice. The most discription anything received were fat characters that Moshfegh seemed to delight in calling disgusting and horrible. And anytime someone from a minority was mentioned, there was some weird aside that the narrator needed to have.

The idea of challenging what the purpose of fiction is and the role of a main character is an intriguing prospect, and this, along with the few stories that stood out to me as genuine, are the reason I'm giving this a higher rating than 0 or 1. But there's no skill or point behind it, to me, other than to shock and disgust. Most of these stories had nothing to say. To make something realistic in its unappetizing circumstances means nothing when you're doing the same trick over and over again. "It's so bad here, what if there were something better? Well, there's not." Cool!

And unfortunately there's not even a single story that's about aliens.

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faduma's review

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dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

0.5

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jillybooks's review

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dark funny reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Moshfegh writes with such a distinctive, witty voice that makes each story gripping. Her humor and messiness of her characters were the clear highlights of the book. However, her characters’ “messiness” does not excuse the blatant ableism, racism, homophobia, and overuse of slurs shoved into every story.

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jordannikol's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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simonipatel's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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madisoncarter's review

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

short stories are the perfect medium for delivering narratives like these, where the main character is absolutely dreadful. i did not have to spend too much time with them, just enough to be captivated but depart as soon as they became overwhelming. this book is dark, disgusting, depressing. i would recommend this sparingly, but i myself enjoyed it. despite many of the protagonists being loathsome, what Moshfegh nails is the fleeting moments where you related to these people. universal themes of loneliness, isolation, grief, unworthiness, etc give even the worst characters a realistic edge. the phrase or sentence that reflects on a feeling you have experienced in the midst of a horrifying narrative is well done and makes many of these stories stuck in your mind.

my faves were :
slumming
dancing in the moonlight
the surrogate
a better place

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