Eileen
Ratings121
Average rating3.6
“I'd never learned how to relate to people, much less how to speak up for myself. I preferred to sit and rage quietly.”
There’s an underlying uneasiness to this somewhat stream of consciousness tale; an almost haunting feeling like there could be a supernatural element introduced at some point, but it never arrives. I don’t know if that’s what Shirley Jackson embodies at times, as I have yet to read the heralded author. Eileen is certainly a slow-burner—emphasis on slowburn—with moments of meandering coming of age blended in, but I enjoyed my time with this complex character study. Due to its intricate narrative pacing I do think it begins to lose steam in the third act, but there was a consistently palpable comparison to the great film, Carol. A strong debut for Moshfegh, and you can easily see the fleshed out development from Eileen to the Narrator in her best book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
i totally forgot to mark that i was reading this since i started reading it at the airport but wtvr lmao
ottessa moshfegh has a penchant for the strange and it has yet to fail to entertain me
Really liked the last third of the book, but the first two thirds dragged enough that I almost DNF'd.
Moshfegh knows how to write deranged/complex female characters with bad hygiene practices.
I really liked Eileen. Both the book and the “unlikable” character it's about. The only perfectible aspect to this book is that, somehow, it feels a little unbalanced: a lot of build up, for a short development and an ending that could have been shorter, or longer and somehow is neither. Still, this is nitpicking and as a debut novel it's simply beautiful.
It started out as promising for me, then it got monotonous and repetitive. At about 70% I had hope again, at 85% a good surprise...and it was crushed by the fast paced ending after that, when nothing had bern fast until then.
Eileen, the 2016 Man Booker shortlisted novel by Ottessa Moshfegh is not the kind of book that normally appeals to me. It is the story of a woman who has very low self esteem, living a dismal and pathetic existence. Nothing dramatic happens in the first three quarters, except routine, dreary existence of her, always wallowing in self pity. But still, while reading it, I wasn't able to put the book down. There's something about this dark comedy that touches and make you empathetic.
Read the full story here :
http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/02/eileen-dark-comedy-about-dreary.html
for me, this book doesn't really delve into the crime, mystery & thriller aspect but more into eileen's uncomfortable and loneliness thoughts. i personally find this book boring and there's only few parts that excite me.
My tastes run to the strange. This is the exactly what I needed to counteract the super sweetness of the holiday season. Eileen is one of the most complex characters I've read in awhile. She's a bit gross, but I found myself pitying her. She has a difficult living situation and has been following orders for quite some time. What she desires is to be loved, or maybe, just noticed. And she finds it.
I loved the way this story unfolded and it felt noirish, and dark. If it were the 90's, I'd have expected to find this story in an independent film made with a very low budget-I would have loved it then too.
Great read.
One of my favorite kinds of writers, the kind that can make anything both beautiful and ugly at the same time, and has no qualms about doing so. I did not see a lot of the humor that other reviews have mentioned when reading this (though the comical absurdity of many of the situations was apparent), but this detracted from nothing. A writer that is not afraid to string you along, knowing that the pivotal moment will be well worth the worldbuilding, character development, the beautiful time spend in the world... that is an incredible thing, and available in spades here. Absolutely gorgeous.