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A review by dreaminfables
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
3.0
"I couldn't be bothered to deal with fixing things. I preferred to wallow in the problem, dream of better days."
Eileen is an interesting character. At the very beginning I found her revolting but as the story unfolded I found myself empathising with her. Then came a character named Rebecca and I understood very little of what to make of her and of Eileen's story. Eileen's entire narrative before the introduction of Rebecca was constructed around how she is different from every girl who looks like her. She spoke for pages about her varied interests, quite distinguishable from those that employed girls of her age. Incidents like shoplifting, obsessively stalking a co worker among other morally grey traits although disgusting were interesting to follow. Her father's co-dependent and neurotic behaviour explained in many ways why Eileen was built like that.
The writing style compliments Eileen's personality. Moshfegh made Eileen both fascinating and confusing. Her father's role was well served too.
Rebecca felt completely both out of place and context within the setting of the novel. If the author was trying to make some point with her appearance in Eileen's life, surely I have missed it. While she is glamorous and a shining example of a life that Eileen both desires and dreads, I found the events that followed in her wake to be lacklustre and of very little consequence.
Eileen is an interesting character. At the very beginning I found her revolting but as the story unfolded I found myself empathising with her. Then came a character named Rebecca and I understood very little of what to make of her and of Eileen's story. Eileen's entire narrative before the introduction of Rebecca was constructed around how she is different from every girl who looks like her. She spoke for pages about her varied interests, quite distinguishable from those that employed girls of her age. Incidents like shoplifting, obsessively stalking a co worker among other morally grey traits although disgusting were interesting to follow. Her father's co-dependent and neurotic behaviour explained in many ways why Eileen was built like that.
The writing style compliments Eileen's personality. Moshfegh made Eileen both fascinating and confusing. Her father's role was well served too.
Rebecca felt completely both out of place and context within the setting of the novel. If the author was trying to make some point with her appearance in Eileen's life, surely I have missed it. While she is glamorous and a shining example of a life that Eileen both desires and dreads, I found the events that followed in her wake to be lacklustre and of very little consequence.