Shop Trolls
Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery
Amazon prime logo
$12.23 with 28 percent savings
List Price: $17.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, January 3 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Tomorrow, December 30. Order within 16 hrs 39 mins.
In Stock
$$12.23 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$12.23
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Eileen: A Novel Paperback – August 16, 2016

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 9,457 ratings

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$12.23","priceAmount":12.23,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"23","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"kOWmhKwlms319wB0p6rulvZ%2BqUuR%2FE%2F1b8wmf3c9PiOWxYpo4ubMrYkXZRwckooMGWCf9QwHWYLWZDo60a%2FIuTS0ZjyXAZU1d6iVq7zE2klf03oPY%2FZ%2F1k7Y1qv%2FpebgK8geq7R9qpEFnW1WJ%2BUxgg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Now a major motion picture streaming on Hulu, starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie

Shortlisted
for the Man Booker Prize

Eileen is a remarkable piece of writing, always dark and surprising, sometimes ugly and occasionally hilarious. Its first-person narrator is one of the strangest, most messed-up, most pathetic—and yet, in her own inimitable way, endearing—misfits I’ve encountered in fiction. Trust me, you have never read anything remotely like Eileen.” Washington Post

So here we are. My name was Eileen Dunlop. Now you know me. I was twenty-four years old then, and had a job that paid fifty-seven dollars a week as a kind of secretary at a private juvenile correctional facility for teenage boys. I think of it now as what it really was for all intents and purposes—a prison for boys. I will call it Moorehead. Delvin Moorehead was a terrible landlord I had years later, and so to use his name for such a place feels appropriate. In a week, I would run away from home and never go back.

This is the story of how I disappeared.


The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.

Played out against the snowy landscape of coastal New England in the days leading up to Christmas, young Eileen’s story is told from the gimlet-eyed perspective of the now much older narrator. Creepy, mesmerizing, and sublimely funny, in the tradition of Shirley Jackson and early Vladimir Nabokov, this powerful debut novel enthralls and shocks, and introduces one of the most original new voices in contemporary literature. Ottessa Moshfegh is also the author of
My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Homesick for Another World: Stories, and McGlue.
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

Frequently bought together

This item: Eileen: A Novel
$12.23
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$14.43
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$12.35
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Treatment
Choose items to buy together.
Popular Highlights in this book

Editorial Reviews

Review

“What makes Moshfegh an important writer—and I'd even say crucial—is that she is unlike any other author (male, female, Iranian, American, etc.). And this sui generis quality is cemented by the singular savage suburban noir of Eileen. . . . Here is art that manages to reject artifice and yet be something wholly new and itself in sheer artistry.” The Los Angeles Times

Eileen is anything but generic. Eileen is as vivid and human as they come . . . Moshfegh . . . writes beautiful sentences. One after the other they unwind—playful, shocking, wise, morbid, witty, searingly sharp. The beginning of this novel is so impressive, so controlled yet whimsical, fresh and thrilling, you feel she can do anything . . . There is that wonderful tension between wanting to slow down and bathe in the language and imagery, and the impulse to race to see what happens, how it happens.” The New York Times Book Review

“The great power of this book, which won the PEN/Hemingway debut fiction award last month, is that Eileen is never simply a literary gargoyle; she is painfully alive and human, and Ottessa Moshfegh writes her with a bravura wildness that allows flights of expressionistic fantasy to alternate with deadpan matter of factness . . . As an evocation of physical and psychological squalor, Eileen is original, courageous and masterful.”
The Guardian

“Enormously entertaining and funny . . . A beautiful novel that tells the truth.”
—Bookforum

“[An] excellent debut novel . . . How will Eileen get out of X-ville? Can she leave unscathed? Why does she keep talking about her father’s gun? Though readers will thoroughly delight in the way the answers unfold, they will be left with one lingering question: What will Ottessa Moshfegh do next?”
Boston Globe

“Charmingly disturbing. Delightfully dour. Pleasingly perverse. These are some of the oxymorons that ran through my mind as I read
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh's intense, flavorful, remarkable new novel. 'Funny awful' might be another one. I marveled at myself for enjoying the scenes I was witnessing, and wondered what dark magic the author had employed to make me smile at them.” —NPR

“If Jim Thompson had married Patricia Highsmith
imagine that householdthey might have conspired together to dream up something like Eileen. It’s blacker than black and cold as an icicle. It’s also brilliantly realised and horribly funny.” —John Banville

“[A] dark and unnerving debut.” —
Publishers Weekly

“It is in that gritty, claustrophobic atmosphere that Ms. Moshfegh’s talents are most apparent. This young writer already possesses a remarkably sighted view into the bleakest alleys of the psyche.”
Wall Street Journal

“Wonderfully unsettling first novel . . .  When the denouement comes, it’s as shocking as it is thrilling. Part of the pleasure of the book (besides the almost killing tension) is that Eileen is mordantly funny . . . this tale belongs to both the past and future Eileen, a truly original character who is gloriously unlikable, dirty, startling—and as ferociously human as the novel that bears her name.”
San Francisco Chronicle

“Rife with dark emotions and twisted fantasies, Moshfegh's psychological thriller is the sinister account of the reclusive Eileen, whose prospects for escape from her abysmal life take a turn for the worse when a friendship with a coworker spirals into obsession." —
Oprah.com

Eileen swaddles the reader in its dark and sinister mood. Moshfegh's brilliant storytelling builds an almost sadistic level of suspense, so that you can't help but lean in and listen to the narrator, however despicable and repulsive her confession becomes.” —Sarah Hollenbeck, co-owner of Women & Children First bookstore, Chicago
 
Eileen is a singular read, dark and funny and full of oft-queasy truths, ones that may at first seem strange and disturbing, but then are not so far away from our own internal thoughts. Eileen is quiet, awkward and lonely. As Christmas approaches, she is desperate to leave her alcoholic father, her dismal home life and her mind-numbing job at a boys’ correctional facility. Enter her glamorous 'new friend' Rebecca and suddenly Eileen is set on a path towards inevitable change, a suspenseful ride to the end. Atmospheric, cinematic, and deliciously uncomfortably heartwarmingly pathetic in the best of ways.” —Melinda Powers, Bookshop Santa Cruz (also sent in to Indie Next)
 
Eileen is unlike anything I've read since, maybe, Patricia Highsmith: a wholly captivating look at a character you're drawn towards in a strange, inexplicable alliance and from whom you can't easily part. I find myself thinking about it still, months later, in the most unexpected ways. Mosfegh has a way with the kind of imagery that brings her world into terrible, precise emotional focus, and the book builds like a slow avalanche. What a pleasure to read!” —Camden Avery, The Booksmith, San Francisco

“Tempting plot machinations aside, you should be reading Moshfegh because she writes incredible sentences, the kind that build and build to create a warped momentum you can’t brake. They create a harsh, blackly humorous world, like Mary Gaitskill, but less grave and with more jokes.”
Gawker
 
Like The Woman Upstairs and Notes on a Scandal, Eileen turns on the symbiotic relationship between love and hate, hope and delusion, and—for the reader—repulsion and absolute absorption.” New York Magazine

“The climax of
Eileen is bizarre, creepy and oddly satisfying. This novel does not fit neatly into a single genre. Its protagonist is unlikable but fascinating, and ultimately sympathetic. It is a masterly psychological drama that lingers, with a disquieting effect, in the reader's mind.” Newsday
 
“The young heroine—if you can call her that—of Ottessa Moshfegh’s chilling debut is exactly the kind of woman whom noir authors tended to summarily ignore. Think of her as a Flannery O’Connor character wandering around a Raymond Chandler novel . . . Moshfegh uses that carefully constructed foundation to build a truly shocking ending, one you’ll never see coming. It’s hard to believe she’s a first-time novelist, so skillfully has she grafted disparate genre elements onto one another: psychological suspense, horror, obsession, and madness. Eileen is as twisted, dark, and unexpected as its title character.” —
Entertainment Weekly

“In this masterful feat of suspense writing, she captures the distortions and complicities that poison families.” —
BBC.com
 
“Eileen is a highbrow noir that introduces Ottessa Moshfegh as a talent to look out for.” —
Bustle
 
“If Shirley Jackson and Mary Gaitskill had a literary daughter, it might be Ottessa Moshfegh, whose unnerving debut is sure to gar­ner attention.” —
Bookpage
 
“Literary psychological suspense at its best.” —
Booklist (starred)
 
“A woman recalls her mysterious escape from home in this taut, controlled noir about broken families and their proximity to violence. . . . The narrative masterfully taunts. . . . The release, when it comes, registers a genuine shock. And Moshfegh has such a fine command of language and her character that you can miss just how inside out Eileen's life becomes in the course of the novel, the way the 'loud, rabid inner circuitry of my mind' overtakes her. Is she inhumane or self-empowered? Deeply unreliable or justifiably jaded? Moshfegh keeps all options on the table. . . . A shadowy and superbly told story of how inner turmoil morphs into outer chaos.”
Kirkus (starred)

About the Author

Ottessa Moshfegh is a fiction writer from New England. Eileen, her first novel, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Death in Her Hands, her second and third novels, were New York Times bestsellers. She is also the author of the short story collection Homesick for Another World and a novella, McGlue. She lives in Southern California.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0143128752
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (August 16, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780143128755
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143128755
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1 x 5 x 7.7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 9,457 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Ottessa Moshfegh
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Ottessa Moshfegh is a fiction writer from New England. Eileen, her first novel, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Death in Her Hands, her second and third novels, were New York Times bestsellers. She is also the author of the short story collection Homesick for Another World; a novella, McGlue; and the forthcoming novel Lapvona. She lives in Southern California.

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
9,457 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They praise the author's detailed descriptions and narrative drive. However, some readers found the story repetitive and boring. Opinions are mixed on the character development - some find them compelling and fascinating, while others consider them unlikable and bleak. There are also differing views on the pacing - some felt it was fast-paced and thought-provoking, while others felt it was slow and drab.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

191 customers mention "Readability"142 positive49 negative

Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They say it's a compelling read that keeps them hooked until the end. The story helps readers rediscover their love of literature and is satisfying.

"...and complicity while crafting a narrative that is both chilling and mesmerizing...." Read more

"...She crafts a compelling character that fascinates and disturbs at the same time...." Read more

"EILEEN is one of the very best books that I have read in years...." Read more

"...Eileen (the novel) is wretched, pervy, and thrilling; Eileen, the character, is determined, inexorable...." Read more

151 customers mention "Writing quality"131 positive20 negative

Customers enjoy the writing quality of the book. They praise the author's detailed descriptions and vivid settings that allow them to visualize the characters and their surroundings. The narrative is described as honest, brutal, and slightly kinky.

"...So, all that's to say I thoroughly enjoyed Moshfegh's writing. She crafts a compelling character that fascinates and disturbs at the same time...." Read more

"...Ottessa Moshfegh is an amazing writer. From the very first pages it is clear that people are not always who and what they appear to be...." Read more

"I loved it for the detailed descriptions, taking me completely to the place, the room, the person...." Read more

"...It's was like the director's cut of a too-long film. The writing is sometimes wonderful, especially in its honesty, but the flow of the story, and..." Read more

139 customers mention "Story quality"82 positive57 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story. Some find it engrossing and intriguing with a great narrative drive. Others feel the story is dull, creepy, and wearying. The ending seems abrupt for some readers, and the length of the book is criticized.

"...The story is introduced with a haunting promise as Eileen reflects on her life and the unusual circumstances that drive her to ultimately disappear..." Read more

"...The story is drab, foul, creepy, and permissibly wearying, yet seductive and compelling...." Read more

"...Some terrific writing, especially early on. The narrative drive is great. One keeps turning the pages. And one does NOT see the big twist coming...." Read more

"...This is an utterly compelling literary crime novel and has deservedly been longlisted for the Man Booker Award, as well as, shortlisted for the..." Read more

99 customers mention "Character development"56 positive43 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development. Some find the character compelling and detailed, while others say the main character is impossible to like and the minor characters are opaque.

"...sharp and incisive prose paints Eileen as a deeply flawed yet fascinating protagonist...." Read more

"...It is hard to like the character Eileen, but we are compelled to follow her and her “stunted development.”..." Read more

"...She crafts a compelling character that fascinates and disturbs at the same time...." Read more

"...Overall, I really enjoyed it, but it's a bleak book with bleak characters living bleak lives...." Read more

78 customers mention "Pacing"27 positive51 negative

Customers have different views on the pacing of the book. Some find it fast-paced and thought-provoking, grabbing their interest from the beginning. Others feel the story drags on and the pacing is slow.

"...No action happens until the 85% mark...." Read more

"...desire, and complicity while crafting a narrative that is both chilling and mesmerizing...." Read more

"...The action doesn’t really start until you’ve read 7/8ths of the novel. That sounds incredibly boring. It isn’t...." Read more

"...I did feel like this book was fairly slow moving until around the end where it picked up plot wise...." Read more

63 customers mention "Suspenseful content"29 positive34 negative

Customers have different views on the suspenseful content. Some find it relatable and fascinating in a sad, morbid way. Others describe it as creepy and strange, with weird and gross events.

"...The story is drab, foul, creepy, and permissibly wearying, yet seductive and compelling...." Read more

"Eileen is the most human kind of crazy...." Read more

"...The story was depressing and a bit scary, like maybe being inside one of these young mass school killer's mind was a thought that would pass..." Read more

"Eileen is an uncommonly entertaining read. It’s a quirky, fascinating character study that is occasionally hilarious, with a protagonist who has..." Read more

53 customers mention "Dark tone"33 positive20 negative

Customers have different views on the book's tone. Some find it compelling and dark, with a noir feel. Others describe it as unrelentingly dark, with no light shining through.

""Eileen" by Ottessa Moshfegh is a darkly captivating novel that immerses readers in the unsettling world of its titular character, Eileen Dunlop...." Read more

"...The ending hit me hard. The entire book was super dark." Read more

"...Number 1-Eileen's character and voice. She's dark and brutal and, in her own way, honest...." Read more

"...When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at the prison, Eileen is enchanted and proves..." Read more

89 customers mention "Boredom"8 positive81 negative

Customers find the book repetitive and depressing. They feel it's a slog with little purpose. The story is repetitive and boring at times.

"...Ferris's *And Then We Came to the End*--but it is a dispiriting slog with little purpose...." Read more

"...The story was depressing and a bit scary, like maybe being inside one of these young mass school killer's mind was a thought that would pass..." Read more

"...There isn't a lot of dialogue in this book, it's all internal monologue, which after awhile gets stale without any action to back it up...." Read more

"...The first part of the book doesn't have much action and really is fairly mundane. I'd say that it's a character study more than anything...." Read more

A distorted & damaged mind…a slow build until the reveal.
3 out of 5 stars
A distorted & damaged mind…a slow build until the reveal.
Slow, kept reading to get to the mysterious hype. Then finally, the hype revealed only at the end. I suppose I prefer a climax in the middle of a story, such as F.Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”.
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2023
    Eileen is a 24-year-old residing with her paranoid, delusional, alcoholic father—a retired cop-- in a decaying, unkempt New England house. She hates her dreary days, her sleepless nights, and her menial job at a boys' correctional facility. It’s Christmas week, 1964, dank, glum, and bitter cold. Her father taunts and abuses her, and makes sexual gestures that were difficult and disturbing to read. He’s a danger to himself and others, but his cop frenemies are afraid of him, too. Eileen has to lock away his shoes to keep him homebound. Disgusted by him, by herself, by her troubles, she locks herself away in her room most of the time.

    Eileen's gallows humor and self-destructive ways will seize you from the start; her tense and twisted mind is irresistible. She paints her lips with garish lipstick in order to hide their true hue, which she says are the color of her nipples. She’s disgusted by any body parts that convey sexuality, but has a celibate crush on one of the detention workers, Randy. On weekends, she drives by his house and parks there for hours, never even sneaking a peek. At home she tries to hide from her father and drinks herself to sleep. She chews her food and then spits it out. She’s whip thin and undernourished, routinely denying what her body needs.

    Sexual appetites—any appetites, repulse Eileen. She considers bodily functions disgusting, so she tries to control them, deny them. Her diet, laxative use and clothing choices are all in favor of resisting maturity and becoming invisible. The trauma she’s endured all her life is devastating. It's no shock that she grew into a self-hating girl-woman.

    Still a virgin, Eileen assumes that sex will have to be forced and violent. “Of course I hoped to be raped by only the most soulful, gentle, handsome of men, somebody who was secretly in love with me.” She considers her sister, Joanie, a whore for running off with a boyfriend at age seventeen. There’s no one in Eileen’s life to serve as a role model. Eileen’s nasty, self-centered mother died years ago from cancer--Eileen reluctantly took care of her at the end.

    I grew up near Boston (this is near Boston) and remember the short days of winter, cracked and soggy simultaneously. That squelch when your boots hit the slush, and the snowy ice melting and refreezing, this cycle going on for weeks. Moshfegh captured it so meticulously, plus the weak light of day that glared at you despite its low wattage, the dark of New England winter nights—the absolute blackness of the season. The dour gloom of this story would be total if not for the reader's foreknowledge that Eileen does get away. She is narrating this story fifty years into the future, dropping small but rich details of her life over the years.

    Eileen’s hunger for liberty is captivating. Her exile at home corresponds to her menial job at a juvie prison. Her life is defined by confinement, isolation, and her morbid sense of self. She has a car and a decent bank account, yet she doesn't comprehend her own agency. She's stuck. Not until she meets a new counselor at the facility, an enigmatic woman named Rebecca, does she see an escape route. She is transfixed, intoxicated, enamored. She wants Rebecca as her BFF, she’s buzzed by Rebecca’s charisma, her infectious presence. Randy is discarded; Eileen has no room now for anyone but her new friend. She self-appoints Rebecca to lead her out of darkness.

    That is the story—Eileen’s sense of self, her captivity, her desire for release. I felt every minute of Eileen’s belief in her own incarceration. She’s convinced her isolation is physical. When she meets Rebecca, it's an epic moment for Eileen. Her inflection point.

    Moshfegh taunts us with Eileen’s raw convictions, her shredded self-esteem. We wait painfully for her tortured gnawing to shift. Trauma and abuse are immobilizing, demoralizing, but we are creatures of hope and desire. Eileen (the novel) is wretched, pervy, and thrilling; Eileen, the character, is determined, inexorable. The story is drab, foul, creepy, and permissibly wearying, yet seductive and compelling. Moshfegh may be an acquired taste, it took me a minute to adjust to the style.

    Hot button triggers are deployed on every page. Eileen is not for everyone—trigger warning!
    22 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2024
    "Eileen" by Ottessa Moshfegh is a darkly captivating novel that immerses readers in the unsettling world of its titular character, Eileen Dunlop. Set during the bleak Christmas season in a small coastal New England town, Eileen, a 24-year-old secretary at a juvenile correctional facility, is caught in a web of resentment and self-loathing while serving as the caretaker for her alcoholic father. The story is introduced with a haunting promise as Eileen reflects on her life and the unusual circumstances that drive her to ultimately disappear from it.

    Moshfegh’s sharp and incisive prose paints Eileen as a deeply flawed yet fascinating protagonist. Her life is filled with bizarre escapades, including shoplifting and stalking a handsome prison guard, which she navigates while fantasizing about escaping to a brighter world. The arrival of Rebecca Saint John, a beautiful and charismatic new counselor at Moorehead, serves as a catalyst for change, sparking an unexpected and intoxicating friendship that leads to a shocking and dangerous turn of events. Moshfegh's novel blends elements of suspense and dark humor, exploring themes of identity, desire, and complicity while crafting a narrative that is both chilling and mesmerizing. With its unique voice and riveting storytelling, "Eileen" establishes Moshfegh as one of contemporary literature's most original talents.
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2017
    I found this book hard to review. I'm quite sure 3 stars is an unfairly low rating. I'll do my best to explain.

    Let me start with what I liked about the book. Number 1-Eileen's character and voice. She's dark and brutal and, in her own way, honest. There are too few female protagonists out there that talk about their bathroom habits or masturbatory fantasies or violent desires in such a straight forward, unabashed way as Eileen does. She feels so authentic, even if much of what she says can't be taken at face value. All in all, I loved this character. Number 2-The town of X-ville. Moshfegh creates a dark little corner of America reminiscent of one Shirley Jackson might have imagined. With, at least imaginatively, the boys prison at its center, X-ville radiates a sad, tragic kind of provincialism that makes the reader feel for Eileen and her sense of claustrophobia. And Moshfegh makes it clear that for all its smallness and casual cruelties, Eileen still has a kind of love for the place, much like, despite the wretchedness of her father, she can't help but love him too, even as she thinks about killing him. Her desire to leave but inability to do so create the primary conflict of the first half of the book.

    Ok, my main problem with the story is its length. Not that it's a long book, but the entire first half of the book merely serves Eileen's voice. Yes, It introduces her character, situation and home, but that could all be cut down to less than fifty pages (perhaps far less). To me, it felt that the author, in her pure joy of writing Eileen's voice, luxuriated in and indulged that pleasure far too long while striving to find her plot. She almost gets away with it (or, in many people's opinion, does get away with it) because the voice is so compelling. My other issue, which I think stems from the first, is that I felt, as I just mentioned, that I could feel the author searching for her plot. As if Moshfegh knew she wanted to get Eileen out of X-ville, but didn't figure out how to accomplish this until half way through the novel. Then she introduces Rebecca and this very odd plot twist (which I liked) that comes out of the blue. In my very humble opinion, I think that the author, once she discovered Rebecca and her usefulness, could have gone back and streamlined the first half of the story, cutting about 100 pages. This sense of groping also came through in Moshfegh's instance on pointing the reader's attention to certain objects throughout the novel. For instance, she refers to icicles over and over again, imagining them as murderous and threatening. I said to my wife about 1/3 of the way through that something better happen with these icicles, or I'd be pissed. Well, something does, but it's minor and feels like an afterthought. She does the same thing with the car and its exhaust issues, though this gets more consequentially used.

    So, all that's to say I thoroughly enjoyed Moshfegh's writing. She crafts a compelling character that fascinates and disturbs at the same time. However, it takes over half the book for the plot to actually kick in, which, for me, meant too little tension in the first part of the book. All though she has Eileen constantly assuring the reader that consequential happenings wait just around the corner, I became impatient, feeling that the character's repeated "little did I know this would be my last Christmas in x-ville" acted as stand ins for actual suspense. When the plot does kick in, its pace picks up and I did find the conclusion, for the most part, satisfying. I would recommend giving the book a read, if for no other reason than the quality of the writing and the uniqueness of the character's voice. I'm for more character's like this in fiction. (less)
    76 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Miawgical
    2.0 out of 5 stars Venía roto.
    Reviewed in Mexico on May 18, 2024
    Todo bien con el envío, y así, pero llego con la portada rota 😩.
    Customer image
    Miawgical
    2.0 out of 5 stars Venía roto.
    Reviewed in Mexico on May 18, 2024
    Todo bien con el envío, y así, pero llego con la portada rota 😩.
    Images in this review
    Customer image Customer image
    Customer imageCustomer image
  • Su
    1.0 out of 5 stars Horrendous
    Reviewed in Turkey on July 10, 2024
    After reading and adoring McGlue, I had the highest hopes for Moshfegh, but Eileen is the sort of trash that confirms the author was shooting for mass-market success. This is a book devoid of style, character, vision, direction, and talent. Most of the book is a repetition of itself, which is infuriating. There is no writing quality whatsoever to speak of. The hype is entirely false, as there is nothing remotely subversive or shocking about the book and its ending. I’ll just say that this is a book that could only be recommended by a bland NPC.
  • GeneralRingRing
    4.0 out of 5 stars Una historia dura y desoladora
    Reviewed in Spain on April 28, 2021
    El libro retrata un mundo tan lúgubre, que creo que no he leído nunca una historia tan tétrica, tan cerrada. Debe ser muy bueno porque me lo leí en pocos días. Eso si, te tiene que pillar con animo.
  • Len
    5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifically written story about the inner lives of "losers"
    Reviewed in Canada on March 8, 2017
    Setting – Small Massachusetts town known as Xville
    Characters – Eileen – a dour young woman with much hate for the world and little concern for her personal appearance. She works at a juvenile centre where she obsesses over Randy, one of the guards.
    Father of Eileen – a drinker who sits in front of the electric stove all day who Eileen describes as “only ever satisfied by [her] complete debasement.”
    The women of the office were both “awful middle-aged women with stiff hairdos who barely looked up from their romance novels unless the warden was around.”
    Rebecca – Eileen’s would-be saviour – “powerful and everything [Eileen] wanted to be.
    Plot – This is a story of redemption and the power to start again but first, we must explore the misery of Eileen’s existence as she revels in the sinister lives of herself and others and their contemptuous inner thoughts.
    Terrifically written story about the inner lives of "losers" and their capacity for rebellion.
  • Carol Sims
    5.0 out of 5 stars The protagonist
    Reviewed in Italy on January 11, 2017
    The protagonist of this book is undoubtedly one of the most unlikable, not to say absolutely nauseating, heroines of modern fiction. Selfish, slovenly, unsure of herself and I would even go so far as to say masochist. At one point I could hardly stand her any more but I had to find out why on earth Rebecca sought her out, and how she finally left town. The denouement came in an unimaginable way. A book that holds your attention till the end if you can put up with the disgusting protagonist.