I know this book came out last year. I wanted to read it. I’m pretty sure it was on Netgalley around the publication date and, as so many of my emails from Netgalley say, my request was denied. Then, suddenly, it’s on Netgalley again, a year later, free for anyone to read. Well, I’m an anyone. Huzzah!
So Eileen. A quarter of the way through, I thought to myself Okay, the narrator says something is going to happen. A third of the way through, I thought to myself I wonder if this something is going to happen soon. Half way through I thought It would be nice if instead of the narrator telling me that something is going to happen that whatever that something is actually does happen. Two-thirds of the way through I don’t think I’m going to care about whatever this something is when/if it does happen. Three-quarters of the way through Shut up narrator and just let the something happen already!
Then the something happens and it’s nothing you couldn’t see coming from a couple miles off. There’s definitely an ick factor that’ll have the story stick to me like a bad smell, but by the time it happens, I did not care. It’s like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness — all that buildup and for what? Some pearl-clutching distaste and the horror, the horror. A sourness, a souring of the imagination.
I didn’t enjoy Eileen, not that one is meant to. I feel sort of slimy after reading it because, as I said, from a couple miles off I could see what was coming, but I read to the end anyway. What does that say about me?
Although, I could have done less with Moshfegh telling me something was going to happen and just getting to the crux of it already.
Repetitive narration wrapped in very good writing.
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh went on sale August 15, 2015.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.