Disgust

by Ottessa Moshfegh

Free online fiction.

From The Paris Review.

Every day at noon Mr. Wu walked through the back alley, past the stinking ravine and the firecracker salesman and the old temple now used as a kind of flophouse for the farmworkers who came in from the country to ...

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

11 pages, ebook

First published October 1, 2012

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.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last one by Ottessa Moshfegh. For now.

Another one with an odd character, this time a Mr. Wu.
"He was in love with the woman at the video-game arcade"

Again, Moshfegh describes her characters and their environment in great detail. It's like sitting in the arcade watching events unfold (or not), or walking along with Mr. Wu when he passes the ravine. During certain humorous moments, you feel just as awkward as Mr. Wu must feel.

If you have some time to spare, you can read it here.

Read this for our May Short Story Month Marathon, a personal challenge during which Alex and I will be going through our short story collection in this last week of May. I'm adding a little twist to it by reading books by authors I haven't read from before.

[michelle (travelingbooknerds)]

I love how for almost every Moshfegh story I have ever read so far, I am always sat questioning whether I like the story or not after I have finished reading it, because they are oft immaculately crafted intimate portraits of and meditations on troubled people, some of them deeply deeply so. Disgust, or Mr. Wu as it is known in Moshfegh's short story collection Homesick For Another World, is definitely one of those stories where I am going to be sitting with it for a while in that indecision of, "Do I love this or do I hate this?" which actually my favorite creative space to sit in, as art is meant to move you to further thought and contemplation of life and existence itself and your part in all of it. When I read Moshfegh's work, I feel connected to something greater than myself. It is truly a marvel how she does that to me and I do not think I ever want to know how she does it. Truly so grateful to have encountered her work.

[Flybyreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moshfegh knows how to write something to revolt, disgust and make the reader uncomfortable and that is why she is so unique and successful, she sparks something inside, triggers unwanted emotions but makes you feel something. Incredibly strong prose and a provocative story, must-read for her fans

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

this really was just disgusting

[manicpixie.bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most ottessa moshfegh-esque short story out of the whole catalogue… just wow !!! i love the prose in this short story, and the grotesque!!!! just wow

[crystalline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course Moshfegh writes incredibly complicated characters in an unsensored world, pulling the reader in so that they can't look away. She does this so well, this time following Mr. Wu through his journey discovering his attraction to disgust. There's a tension to Moshfegh's words that keep you turning the page, unexpected actions from her characters that make you wonder at what they're not telling you. The writing here is uncomfortable, dirty, and concise.

[Matthew Wilder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ottessa Moshfegh is the bomb.

[prettygirlfriedrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

y’all are dumb

[danthefireman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The picture Moshfegh is able to paint is horrid. I don’t know how someone could find the words and use them to make me feel like this. She invokes such strong emotions, it’s just

[genevieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

yeah. it's gross.

[JTON · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repackaged as "Mr. Wu" for Moshfegh's 2017 collection Homesick for Another World, "Disgust" follows Mr. Wu for a few days of his life in a generic town on the outskirts of an unnamed Chinese metropolis. The audience can observe with detached clarity as he willingly submits to his fixation on the woman from the town's arcade. As he stumbles through a brief and unorthodox courtship, soliciting prostitutes all the while, Mr. Wu both expresses and elicits disgust to and from the world around him. All in all, Mr. Wu seems to fit the profile of a Moshfegh protagonist: engrossed in his own mind, largely incurious about the minds of others, and, thusly, disgustingly human.

[Dina H.]

Every time I read a book by Moshfegh I want to book an appointment with my therapist. I understand that it’s the whole point of her work but there’s only so much I can take.
I might give Lapvona a try though…

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best short stories I've ever read.

[Diana]

"Mr. Wu." Homesick for Another World.

[Clementine · Rating 5 out of 5]

this story is a slap on my face. they’re not at all what we really want or who we want them to be.

[alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

made a boy read this to me as a bed time story, he was slightly confused but i loved it

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personally I’m a big fan of how disgustingly explicit Moshfegh is

[Vera Marsova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow hilarious