Eileen By Ottessa Moshfegh

 

Eileen

By Ottessa Moshfegh

Eileen is a 24-year-old living with her alcoholic father in a run-down hoarder house, and working at a youth prison where she spends her time fantasizing about a guard named Randy in between her tedious duties. She has no friends, is taunted by her coworkers, emotionally abused by her father, abandoned by her mother, and has a terrible self-image. 

Eileen gets through the world by pretending to wear a disinterested mask, while her inner life is fraught with judgements about herself and everyone she meets. She dreams of running away from it all and becoming a new person. When a new employee named Rebecca comes to work at the prison, Eileen finds a new obsession. Rebecca pays attention to Eileen and makes her feel like she actually has a friend for the first time in her life.

Rebecca takes an interest in the story of one of the young boy prisoners and learns the boy's story, which she believes, telling Eileen that the boy's crime of killing his father was justified and she plans to do something about it, pulling Eileen into her plan to confront the boy's mother, who was complicit in the boy's abuse. When Eileen comes up with a plan to cover up what they've done, Rebecca leaves her holding the bag and Eileen decides now is better than ever to disappear.

I loved the writing of this book. It is a 5 star read for me. As with McGlue, Eileen pulls no punches with the physicality and corporeality of living in a body. Eileen challenges the reader to confront the disgusting things being a person living amongst others entails. But Eileen is a complicated character. Told by Eileen as an older woman who has changed her life, we see what Eileen had to go through that pushed her to leave everything behind, the only way she could think to change her life and to grow into a woman who has love and gives it, who sheds her mask and decides to live openly, no matter what that looks like.

An excellent book!