Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Homesick for Another World

Not my favorite read of the year but it held my attention until the last page. I love Moshfegh’s writing, even when becomes so disgusting. This is a collection of stories about people who carry some amount of misery, all of whom have flaws. I strongly disliked most of the characters, but I couldn’t put the book down.

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girlinlavender's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.0

This is the second Moshfegh book I've read. I've noticed a pattern when I read her books. I'm not necessarily in love with the novel, the plot(s), the characters, etc., but her books leave me wanting to read more. I'm even more excited to read another Moshfegh book than I was when I finished my first Moshfegh book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I think the writing is strong, but I didn't love any of the stories; none of them were standouts. They were all pretty okay. I will say there's something about the fact that Moshfegh can get me to read about these characters I don't like at all that I respect. I don't know if I want to give the other ones a try because she's such a popular author or because of pure interest. Either way, I think l will give another one of her books a read. Reminded me a lot of My Year of Rest and Relaxation. If I had to pick which ones I enjoyed the most: "A Dark and Winding Road" and "Slumming (probably my "favorite")."

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atiek's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

These stories were meh, but still new, just a tad bit overbearing like all of Moshfegh's characters are.

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emory's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

2.25

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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ericj32's review

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dark sad medium-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

1.25

Overall, the writing is simple, blunt, and erratic - kind of degrading to read. Lots of sad, sloppy, angry people looking for sex or some kind of warped version of happiness (usually just sex, though). Nothing really enjoyable or interesting about this for me.

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