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3 stars, books, Eileen, first time read, library book, literary fiction, Ottessa Moshfegh, read in 2023, reading, review
Title: Eileen
Author: Ottessa Moshfegh
First published: 2015
Dates read: 21.1.2 – 29.12.2023
Category: first-time read, library book, literary fiction
Rating: 3/5
The book in five words or less: interesting character study, underwhelming plot
My thoughts:
Back in 2019, I practically flew through Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation – an absolute impulse buy and read – and I have been meaning to read more of her work ever since. I’m not sure why it took me this long, to be honest; I suppose the time just wasn’t right until now.
Eileen, Moshfegh’s first novel, is set in Massachusetts in the 1960s and tells the story of 24-year-old Eileen Dunlap, a secretary at a juvenile correction facility who alternates her work with caring for her abusive, alcoholic father. Eileen’s life gets upended when a new councillor arrives at the prison, a woman called Rebecca whose seeming perfection Eileen promptly gets obsessed with and tries to emulate. Things come to a head when Rebecca gets Eileen involved in a crime that will change her life forever.
Friendless, socially awkward, and lonely, Eileen is a notably unique character whose idiosyncratic thoughts and mannerisms, especially around personal hygiene, and rules she seemingly made up for herself, are equal parts fascinating, weird, and disgusting. She is apparently often self-aware enough to admit that she is very selfish and emotionally stunted, but also highly contradictory when it comes to her behaviour as opposed to her thoughts. There is no doubt that Eileen is not meant to be likeable, and she doesn’t come across as such – and I did not mind that, because I found her interesting enough. What I did mind, in the end, and what coloured my overall enjoyment of the novel was the book’s pacing and plotting. And in that respect, I was mostly disappointed: The resolution of the central ‘mystery’ paled in comparison with its buildup, much of the action was crammed into the last couple of chapters while the beginning and middle of the novel were often repetitive, and the ending was rather vague, boring, and anti-climactic. Add to that that Rebecca’s actions and motives never fully made sense to me, and that I can’t fully believe that the young Eileen really developed into the hardened woman now telling her story, and my main feeling about Eileen is one of underwhelm. I think the novel works reasonably well as a character study, but because of the aforementioned pacing and plotting issues, I just didn’t like it as much as I’d hoped.
Read if you like: unlikeable female characters, Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings, Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation