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A review by versmonesprit
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
After McGlue, which I 100% feel will go down in literary history as a classic, I had extremely high hopes, so I decided not to wait any longer to continue my chronological reading of Moshfegh’s bibliography. How I wish I had foregone that idea and not bought Eileen! It pains me that I spent time and money on a book that’s hard to believe is written by the same person who wrote a masterpiece like McGlue.
Eileen should have been a short story, because that’s also the length you’re left with when you take away all the repetition and the crap that worsened this book. It’s so hard to believe in the feeble interior logic of the book that, if I didn’t know who the author was, I would have guessed it was written by a child on Wattpad. It drags on far too long for a story that has so little substance, and worse yet, no character at all. The first person voice for Eileen is so unoriginal, it’s painful. The allegedly horrific final act is anything but. I end up reading a lot of crappy books unfortunately, so I can’t say I haven’t felt so much apathy for a book in recent times. What I can say is that I read this book with the condescending straight face of an adult listening to the dull crap a toddler tells them.
If you think any of this is harsh, I’d say it’s *merited*. Unsure if I wanted to rate this 1 or 0.25, I went through other reviews to acquire some perspective, or more so, any crutch to hold onto to prove myself wrong, to convince myself this was an alright book. In this effort, I came across a Goodreads review quoting a September 2016 Guardian interview with the author, and what I read horrified me, because I learned all this was *intended*. Apparently, Moshfegh thought she couldn’t find success with good works like McGlue, and deliberately chose to write a commercial fiction to get a big publisher’s attention so as to launch her career as a writer. Well done, I guess? She got what she wanted, sacrificing quality and reputation as a literary writer. I’d say self-respect too, but I doubt anyone who willingly writes commercial fiction when they can write literature has that.
Eileen should have been a short story, because that’s also the length you’re left with when you take away all the repetition and the crap that worsened this book. It’s so hard to believe in the feeble interior logic of the book that, if I didn’t know who the author was, I would have guessed it was written by a child on Wattpad. It drags on far too long for a story that has so little substance, and worse yet, no character at all. The first person voice for Eileen is so unoriginal, it’s painful. The allegedly horrific final act is anything but. I end up reading a lot of crappy books unfortunately, so I can’t say I haven’t felt so much apathy for a book in recent times. What I can say is that I read this book with the condescending straight face of an adult listening to the dull crap a toddler tells them.
If you think any of this is harsh, I’d say it’s *merited*. Unsure if I wanted to rate this 1 or 0.25, I went through other reviews to acquire some perspective, or more so, any crutch to hold onto to prove myself wrong, to convince myself this was an alright book. In this effort, I came across a Goodreads review quoting a September 2016 Guardian interview with the author, and what I read horrified me, because I learned all this was *intended*. Apparently, Moshfegh thought she couldn’t find success with good works like McGlue, and deliberately chose to write a commercial fiction to get a big publisher’s attention so as to launch her career as a writer. Well done, I guess? She got what she wanted, sacrificing quality and reputation as a literary writer. I’d say self-respect too, but I doubt anyone who willingly writes commercial fiction when they can write literature has that.