Back to writing

Review: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

September 7, 2022

This book feels like a character assignment in a college writing class. It’s very well written but the main character is so unlikable and so grotesque I found it hard to get through. It’s not until about 200 pages in (out of 260) that the book actually gets to the point and begins to reveal why Eileen suddenly left X-Ville. While the twist, for lack of a better word, was interesting it wasn’t nearly as shocking or intense as I had hoped.

The narration had the same vibe as the grandma telling her life story in Titanic, but minus literally anything positive. The elder Eileen hints that a better future is on the horizon, but the endless scenes of filth, vomit, and depravity made it impossible to envision it or even want that for the character.

I admire what the author set out to do in this book, and in other books of hers I’ve read. Her characters feel real and vividly fleshed out, but my god would I never want to meet them or read about them again. I’ll definitely try to read more of the author’s work in the future but during COVID when a singular drop of serotonin is so hard to come by, it feels stupid to loose any to a book that I can simply just not read.

Book details