Denna diskussion är för närvarande "vilande"—det sista inlägget är mer än 90 dagar gammalt. Du kan återstarta det genom att svara på inlägget.
2Deern
This is my review - not a book I hated, but I didn't like it much:
This is the story of a total miserable youth told in a style that reminds of chick-lit (sorry, don’t have a different expression). The narrator is the now quite old ex-Eileen (she mentions she has changed her name) who looks back on those bad years, half mocking her old self. You can’t really say anything against Eileen as a character because old Eileen already does all the “oh yes, I felt SOOO self-important” and “I kind of enjoyed my misery” and “my self-chosen ugliness was an expression of my vanity”. So yes, you can’t like Eileen and Eileen agrees with you. This creates a distance and keeps the reader from developing too much sympathy and to identify while it’s also an extra security mechanism against critics. I can’t decide if I find that smart or not.
Anyway, Eileen lives with her alcoholic father in a messy household. She wears the clothes of her dead mother and does everything to be invisible while dreaming to be saved by young Randy (whom she stalks) who works with her in a detention center for young criminal boys. Eileen herself drinks way too much, it is basically her only way to connect with her dad. In the evenings, after getting his daily gin supply at the liquor shop, she retires to the attic in order not to be confronted with her drunk father. Her life changes drastically when Rebecca starts working at the center. She’s lively, pretty and courageous and immediately makes friends with Eileen.
No, I didn’t like this novel very much. The book has some Jelinek The Piano Teacher moments, but it’s not as smart and witty and the sarcasm isn’t half as biting. The book is full of early and repeated announcements (“until I met Rebecca”, “this would be my last week with my father”, “this gun is going to be important”…). Then there was a really unexpected surprising twist from where the story could have taken a turn into a different genre. And then… disappointment.
I fear to see it again on the SL.
Rating: 3 stars, just so (more like 2.8, 2.9)
This is the story of a total miserable youth told in a style that reminds of chick-lit (sorry, don’t have a different expression). The narrator is the now quite old ex-Eileen (she mentions she has changed her name) who looks back on those bad years, half mocking her old self. You can’t really say anything against Eileen as a character because old Eileen already does all the “oh yes, I felt SOOO self-important” and “I kind of enjoyed my misery” and “my self-chosen ugliness was an expression of my vanity”. So yes, you can’t like Eileen and Eileen agrees with you. This creates a distance and keeps the reader from developing too much sympathy and to identify while it’s also an extra security mechanism against critics. I can’t decide if I find that smart or not.
Anyway, Eileen lives with her alcoholic father in a messy household. She wears the clothes of her dead mother and does everything to be invisible while dreaming to be saved by young Randy (whom she stalks) who works with her in a detention center for young criminal boys. Eileen herself drinks way too much, it is basically her only way to connect with her dad. In the evenings, after getting his daily gin supply at the liquor shop, she retires to the attic in order not to be confronted with her drunk father. Her life changes drastically when Rebecca starts working at the center. She’s lively, pretty and courageous and immediately makes friends with Eileen.
No, I didn’t like this novel very much. The book has some Jelinek The Piano Teacher moments, but it’s not as smart and witty and the sarcasm isn’t half as biting. The book is full of early and repeated announcements (“until I met Rebecca”, “this would be my last week with my father”, “this gun is going to be important”…). Then there was a really unexpected surprising twist from where the story could have taken a turn into a different genre. And then… disappointment.
I fear to see it again on the SL.
Rating: 3 stars, just so (more like 2.8, 2.9)
3RidgewayGirl
Here's my review of Eileen as a counterpoint. I loved this book. It's classic noir, with an unlikeable protagonist.
Ottessa Moshfegh's debut novel, Eileen, is classic noir. Harsh and unflattering, Eileen tells the story of a few days at the end of 1964, and the dramatic change those few days made in her life. At the start of the book, twenty-four year old Eileen has a terrible job as a secretary in a bleak detention center for boys and a terrible, filthy home with her brutal, alcoholic father. She dreams of escape, and has been saving for the day when she can leave the coastal Massachusetts town she's grown up in, plain, dull and over-looked, for a more passionate, vital life elsewhere. And, because this is noir, in walks the femme fatale.
This isn't a pleasant novel. Eileen isn't likable. As the book is narrated from inside of her head, there's no way to avoid discomfort. When she isn't having naive, yet off-putting fantasies about one of the guards at the boys' home, she's busy feeling heartily sorry for herself. That is, until her life changes and she sees a way forward. It's not that Eileen becomes a more pleasant person to spend time with, but she does become more interesting.
I do like noir and Eileen is a fantastically well-done entry into the genre. If there's a category of literary noir, this would fit right it. It sounds creepy to say this, but this book delighted me. If you are at all squeamish, you might want to pass on this though, which is not to say that it's overly graphic; it's just that uncomfortable scenes are described with such skill as to make them very real.
Ottessa Moshfegh's debut novel, Eileen, is classic noir. Harsh and unflattering, Eileen tells the story of a few days at the end of 1964, and the dramatic change those few days made in her life. At the start of the book, twenty-four year old Eileen has a terrible job as a secretary in a bleak detention center for boys and a terrible, filthy home with her brutal, alcoholic father. She dreams of escape, and has been saving for the day when she can leave the coastal Massachusetts town she's grown up in, plain, dull and over-looked, for a more passionate, vital life elsewhere. And, because this is noir, in walks the femme fatale.
This isn't a pleasant novel. Eileen isn't likable. As the book is narrated from inside of her head, there's no way to avoid discomfort. When she isn't having naive, yet off-putting fantasies about one of the guards at the boys' home, she's busy feeling heartily sorry for herself. That is, until her life changes and she sees a way forward. It's not that Eileen becomes a more pleasant person to spend time with, but she does become more interesting.
I do like noir and Eileen is a fantastically well-done entry into the genre. If there's a category of literary noir, this would fit right it. It sounds creepy to say this, but this book delighted me. If you are at all squeamish, you might want to pass on this though, which is not to say that it's overly graphic; it's just that uncomfortable scenes are described with such skill as to make them very real.
4Simone2
>2 Deern: >3 RidgewayGirl: How interesting to see your different reactions to the book. I look forward to reading it (BookDepository takes a while to deliver in the Netherlands). Although I hated The Piano Teacher...!
5Deern
>3 RidgewayGirl: This is so interesting! I only ever read one noir book knowingly, it was mentioned as an Italian noir milestone in a TV literature series. I didn't like it at all, but I thought that maybe I'd need some "training" in that genre to get a feeling for it.
>4 Simone2: I liked The Piano Teacher for its biting language. The plot was more than a bit "ew" - and that's where I saw some connection with Eileen. All this making herself ugly while wanting to be pretty and the inhibited and obsessive relationship to her body.
>4 Simone2: I liked The Piano Teacher for its biting language. The plot was more than a bit "ew" - and that's where I saw some connection with Eileen. All this making herself ugly while wanting to be pretty and the inhibited and obsessive relationship to her body.
6Simone2
I finished Eileen and dit not really like it. Perhaps that is exactly what Moshfegh meant with this book, but that sounds a bit contradictory of course.
Eileen is a very lonely and insecure girl with a monotonous life of working in a youth detention centre at day and taking care of her druk father at night. No one cares for her and she makes sure it stays that way by making herself as invisible as possible. She doesn't want anyone to pay attention to her because she feels ugly and unworthy. This is very sad, but Mosfhegh makes sure Eileen is not very likable, neither as a young woman and, nor as the old one who tells the story.
Eileen's life changes when Rebecca arrives, a new colleague who, with all her beauty and charisma, chooses Eileen to confide in. A sparkle of hope in Eileen's dull life, but this storyline doesn't work out very good in my opinion.
I think Moshfegh did a very good job in creating an atmosphere which leaves you uncomfortable, while reading and after finishing the book, because she is able to direct your feelings towards Eileen. Still, my not liking it predominates.
Eileen is a very lonely and insecure girl with a monotonous life of working in a youth detention centre at day and taking care of her druk father at night. No one cares for her and she makes sure it stays that way by making herself as invisible as possible. She doesn't want anyone to pay attention to her because she feels ugly and unworthy. This is very sad, but Mosfhegh makes sure Eileen is not very likable, neither as a young woman and, nor as the old one who tells the story.
Eileen's life changes when Rebecca arrives, a new colleague who, with all her beauty and charisma, chooses Eileen to confide in. A sparkle of hope in Eileen's dull life, but this storyline doesn't work out very good in my opinion.
I think Moshfegh did a very good job in creating an atmosphere which leaves you uncomfortable, while reading and after finishing the book, because she is able to direct your feelings towards Eileen. Still, my not liking it predominates.
7PaulCranswick
I liked it better than The Sellout but that hardly constitutes a ringing endorsement.
The writing style was, in my view, not mature or fully formed enough and I am amazed that this got nominated for an award. The twist in the story makes it almost worth the wait but I would be astonished if this wins.
The writing style was, in my view, not mature or fully formed enough and I am amazed that this got nominated for an award. The twist in the story makes it almost worth the wait but I would be astonished if this wins.
