Achieve Eileen Penned By Ottessa Moshfegh Categorized In Pamphlet

call Moshfegh's protagonists "unlikeable" and I have a real problem with that, What they are is honest, brutally, and clearly in a socially unacceptable way, Well, I loved Eileen Dunlop, Both Eileens, theyears old narrator Eileen and theyears version who the story is about,

The story old Eileen tells us starts inwhen she was a mentally and sexually abusedyear old motherless, very damaged young woman and although there is a plot, the book mostly requires you to be comfortable living in Eileen's mind forpages.
No easy feat and it's not for everyone, Every dark, disgusting, embarrassing thought you ever tried to actively suppress, Eileen won't, She is the worst version of you, of anyone, She is refreshing, to tell you the truth,

This book is not as good as My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but comes very close,

"Truth be told, I was a glutton for punishment, I didn't really mind getting bossed around by my father, I'd get angry, and I loathed him, yes, but my fury gave my life a kind of purpose, and running his errands killed time, That is what I imagined life to be one long sentence of waiting out the clock, "

"Imagining his parents beating him as a child is the only path to forgiveness that I have found so far, It isn't perfect, but it does the trick, "

"Looking at my reflection really did soothe me, though I hated my face with a passion, Such is the life of the selfobsessed, "

"One day I'd be gone, I hoped, never to have to look at her or think of her again, so I tried to hate her with all my might, squeeze our encounters for every last drop of disgust she could ever inspire in me.
"

"I had no compassion for anyone unless his suffering allowed me to indulge in my own, "

"I was a fool about men in general, I learned the long way about love, tried every house on the block before I got it right, Now, finally, I live alone, "

I will spare you my personal favourite paragraph, I believe it is suitable for hardcore fans of Moshfegh only, but if you own a copy, it's on page.
'Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, . . because it was dead and in Eileen's glove compartment,

If you've read anything by Moshfegh, you know her books are a bit odd, Her characters are unapologetic in their bleak, raw honesty and weirdness, but you feel for them because their circumstances are dismal and soulcrushing,

In this debut novel shortlisted for theMan Booker Prize, readers follow along as an elderly Eileen reflects back on a pivotal week in her life when she was, living in "Xville" small town New England, and working as a secretary in a boys' prison.
She lives with her alcoholic extremely emotionally abusive father after her also abusive mother passed away from a violent illness, We know from the start that an event will occur at the end of the week on Christmas Eve, which will cause her to leave this life behind,

With that sort of story structure, there's a lot of pressure on said event to pay off, In my eyes, I don't think it does, Still, Eileen is such a memorable character that I don't begrudge the journey to get there, And Moshfegh's style is so unique that I applaud her strong voice and writing style, I'll always be intrigued by what she puts forth in the future,

.Ottessa Moshfeghs debut novel Eileen sounded like a great and intriguing read, Thes, a girls escape from a boring life in a small New England town, a mysterious crime there are lots of interesting plot points going for this book, which will be released in August.


Unfortunately, this does not necessarily translate to the writing, Dont get me wrong, Eileen Dunlop is an interesting yet thoroughly unlikable character, and her insights into her life range from bland and depressive to curious and strange, But the story drags on, There is no action, and a lot of repetitions, You constantly feel like surely, next page, something is going to happen, Not so much out of suspense, but rather because you see the pages of the book running out, The interesting plot only starts at the very end, where the reader finally finds out what hideous crime Eileen was involved in,

Eileens story is told in the first person, by an Eileen who is fifty years older and looking back on her life, First person narrative told by a despicable character in flashback is a bold choice for any novel, let alone a debut novel, Sometimes it works, but sadly, in this case, it does not,

With its depressing story

and dragging plot, I had to force myself to finish reading, and found myself ready to simply abandon the book several times, The twist is neither “Hitchcockian,” nor is the writing anything “like Shirley Jackson or early Vladimir Nabokov,” as the description claimed,

If you want a slow, dull and very sad character study, look no further, If you want a plot twist that would make Hitchcock proud look elsewere,"repugnant, vile, fierce, exhibitionistic" !!!

th Favorite Read of

I have never been so reluctant to give a bookstars,

This is a book that directs all its murky gaze on the darkness that lurks within women, Ms. Moshfegh slowly and repetitively dissects Eileen into all her gory parts from the darkness of her sexual fantasies that include postpubescent boys, unattainable women, to visualizing her coworkers engaging in sex that both disgusts and titilates her.
Eileen's psyche is laid bare and we see ugliness, neediness, pettiness, the most humble of narcissism that makes others rebuke her, diminish and humiliate her, Her body is also scrutinized from her breasts, to vaginal lips to bony hips to the frequency of her bowel movements and her lack of feminine hygiene, Eileen is deprived, ugly, hurt and this comes out in a myriad of ways, We are disgusted by Eileen and because of this we recoil but like the disgusting voyeurs that we are move in closer and look through our fingers at her while we pinch our noses and hold our breath.


Eileen is too weak to be an antihero and not evil enough to be a villain, She is the repository of all the misogyny we experience as a society and the opposite side of the coin is Rebecca who will not enter this conversation but suffice to say is the elixir that enables Eileen to break free from her depravity and enter less hellish and freer states.


Ms. Moshfegh has written a book that is so haunting, frightening and demoralizing that you will look at all the women you meet with cautiousness and suspicion, No loving grandmas, indulgent aunts, nurturing mothers, devoted wives or obedient daughters, Evil lies at the hearts of the best of them or weakness and ugliness in the worst,

I have to say that I do have some regrets reading this book as it was like eating spoilt meat it will upset my digestion and cause me some anguish for a few days until the wonderful women in my life can reassure me that Eileen, Rebecca and Mrs.
Polk are the rarest of breeds and perhaps only exist in the darkest reaches of our imagination,

Fucking brilliant Ms, Moshfegh but please do not ever, ever, ever write a new edition of Heidi, Annie or Pippi Longstocking,

Jokes aside . I want the impact of this book to diminish quickly !! "What if she could smell that I was menstruating, and that I hadnt washed What if she smelled it clear as day but didnt say anything How, then, would I know whether or not shed smelled it, and how ought I act to pretend I didnt know Rebecca smelled it"

Welcome to the anxietyridden mind of Eileen.


Eileen lives in a perpetual fantasy, Her words, not mine. She will undoubtedly go down in herstory as one of the most memorable characters I have ever read,

This is an "inside the head of a damaged person" kind of story so if that's not your thing, hit the lights on your way out,

Nothing to speak of ever happens in this story, it's just the reader and Eileen suffering through daytoday life, until it's not,

Eileen takes her time bringing us to the eluded point in her life where everything gets flipped upside down, That point is atand it's as gasp worthy as any moment I have ever read, I mean, set my tablet aside mouthing "what the fuck, . . WHAT THE FUCK"

A couple of GR friends have recommended this book to me multiple times and clearly they've been paying attention to my proclivity for dark, disquieting and nefarious stories.
This book is everything I love, so thanks ladies, you hit the nail on the thumb with this one, ON SALE FOR.THIS WEEK! May, if you can prepare yourself for some disgusting selfcare and a bizarre protagonist, the story will wow my fellow oddballs, If you prefer commercial fiction, then stick to Lee Child and Jodi Picoult, . . Ottessa is not your writer,

Apparently, Im a total softie for a sociopathic narrator, When the person whispering in my ear is pathologically selfabsorbed, that lovely and hideous freak usually has me wrapped around his little finger, Or her finger, in this case,

Eileen is weird, She is not keen on bathing, lives off a handful of peanuts, and once a week takes massive doses of laxatives to purge, She lives at home with her pop who never much loved her but does appreciate the bottles of gin she runs out to get him,

But as she narrates the storyyears later under an assumed name, we wonder what it was that finally gave her the guts to run off from her unnamed city Xville, she calls it.
We assume, of course, that some sort of crime has taken place, and even in hers, Eileen is guarding her actions,

"I looked like a girl youd expect to see on a city bus, reading some clothbound book from the library about plants or geography, perhaps wearing a net over my light brown hair.
You might take me for a nursing student or a typist, note the nervous hands, a foot tapping, bitten lip, I looked like nothing special, ""

""I kept in the glove box of the Dodge a dead field mouse Id found one day on the porch frozen in a tight ball, Id picked it up by its tail and swirled it through the air for a moment, then slung it in the glove box with a broken flashlight, a map of New England freeways, a few green nickels.
"

"" honestly, even in those darkest moments, the idea of anyone examining my naked corpse was enough to keep me alive, I was that ashamed of my body, It also concerned me that my demise would have no great impact, that I could blow my head off and people would say, “Thats all right, Lets get something to eat, ”"

"I remember a man I met in my thirties who bent my ear one night babbling about his happy childhoodpresents under the tree, cocoa, puppies, chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
Theres nothing I detest more than men with happy childhoods, ""

The first three quarters of this book were a delicious slow burn for me, The dark and bizarre life Eileen leads in her secretarial Job at a juvenile boys detention center takes a new turn, and finally pop! A surprise,

Up until the last several pages of this book, I would have given it a five star rating, Look I love horrible narrators like Dr, Marc and Joe Lon and that chick from the Girl on the Train book, They are far more interesting than any goody two shoes character ever written, Even when the narrator is a good guy, I end up judging a book by the complexity of the villain in the story, The motivation behind the bad is a lot more difficult to write, I think, than somebody who grew up as part of the Brady Bunch,

So prepare to be repulsed and mesmerized, In a million years, I had no idea where this book or should I say Eileen was going, While the conclusion left me a bit wanting, this quick read is well worth the time, I could not put this down! Four point seven five

UPDATE: Booker short list! you have to be completely sick and twisted to enjoy this messedup book, i mean come on, one fourth of the book consists of description of bowel movements how is that appealing to you turns out, i am sick and twisted and i enjoyed it very much reread: still slaps!

Like The Sellout, I had been aware of Eileenfor a while now.
Ive also been meaning to read it for equally as long, Once again, pushed by the Man Booker, I finally read it, Thank goodness.

Taking place over a week at Christmas in the lates, Eileen tells the story of Eileen Dunlop, a woman in her earlytwenties, She works at a correctional institute for young men where she stalks a security guard and spies on the inmates in solitary confinement, At home she sleeps in a cot in the attic where she pees into mason jars and indulges in laxative binges which make her bowel movements torrential and oceanic, Her teeth are rotting from her penchant for sweets and doesnt shower often because she enjoys stewing in her own filth, Needless to say, Eileen is a divisive narrator, Some have criticised this book for relying on shock value whilst others have praised Moshfegh for creating such a vile but enticing protagonist, My opinion is that Eileen is near a masterpiece,

Remember that scene in Trainspotting where Ewan McGregor is in the filthy toilet cubicle and proceeds in making his way into the toilet and swims around in the cistern bliss Thats a lot like reading Eileen.
Youre aware of the filth and the depravity but once youre in there its actually quite beautiful, Eileen lives with her excop, currentalcoholic father who she fears will kill himself eventually, At work all of her fellow employees mock and bully her for being so filthy, One cannot help but think of Eileen as an endearing character, Her life is tough, even if she brings a lot of it onto herself, You read this novel hoping thing will get better for her, hoping someone will come along and save her from herself, And someone does. From then on, Eileen wouldnt seem out of place in Patricia Highsmiths bibliography,

The book is written by the Eileen of right now, reminiscing about the winter that changed her life, It is an incredibly engrossing novel, Eileen is one of the most memorable characters I have read in recent years, The novel just radiates intrigue and has an ending straight out of the best Hitchcock, I will be shocked if Eileen isnt my book of the year, .