Reading the 20th Century discussion

A 21st century author and one I have only just discovered, however, on the strength of My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2017), a new favourite

I know Roman Clodia is also smitten

Here’s my review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Other reviews of this book suggest that you are likely to either fall in love with her style or be left cold.

What category are you in?

I am going to be reading Ottessa Moshfegh's 2016 Booker nominated Eileen very soon - I'll report back.

Let's talk Ottessa Moshfegh

A bit more about Ottessa Moshfegh....





Ottessa Moshfegh is a fiction writer from New England. Her first book, McGlue, a novella, won the Fence Modern Prize in Prose and the Believer Book Award.

She is also the author of the short story collection Homesick for Another World.

Her stories have been published in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and Granta, and have earned her a Pushcart Prize, an O. Henry Award, the Plimpton Discovery Prize, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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, her second novel, was a New York Times bestseller.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/au...

Ottessa Moshfegh wrote an interesting piece for Granta Magazine 144 last summer


It concludes with...

At 36, I’m pretty fluent in irreverence and cynicism.

My assumption that people are ultimately self-serving lowers my expectations and allows me to forgive. More importantly, it empowers me to be selfish, and to cast off the delusion that I’ll get what I want just by “being nice”. We are all unruly and selfish sometimes. I am, you are, he is, she is. Like Dicks, I have little patience for small talk or politesse. One has to be somewhat badly behaved to write above the fray in a society most comfortable with palatable mediocrity. One has to be willing to upset the apple cart. Apples go flying, people trip and fall, yelp, grab for one another. A street corner is transformed into a tragic circus. And everybody gets an apple, each one bruised and broken in a special way. That’s the kind of writer I have always wanted to be, a troublemaker. I can’t fault Dicks or anyone else

Dicks is a pseudonym for a famous male writer whom the 17 year old Ottessa Moshfegh approached for advice. It's a short article and well worth a read....

Click here to read it

She discusses the article here

Even having only read one of her works it explains a bit about her attitudes and uncompromising writing style

So smitten am with Ottessa Moshfegh that I am now prioritising her 2016 Booker nominated novel Eileen. I'm more impressed that it was also nominated for the Gordon Burn Prize, which I find a far more interesting literary award.

High expectations - what could possibly go wrong?

Nigeyb wrote: "So smitten am with Ottessa Moshfegh that I am now prioritising her 2016 Booker nominated novel Eileen."

I've finished

Whilst not quite as wonderful as My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Eileen is another top notch read.

Eileen is a page turner. Very dark and original with echoes of both Patricia Highsmith and Jim Thompson. Eileen's squalid and vaguely perverse world is compellingly evoked and the finale is the perfect end to a short, tense and absorbing tale.

4/5

Here’s my review

I think I may have been too harsh on Eileen - two stars seems excessively mean in retrospect, as it was certainly memorable. I did like the story collection (Homesick for Another World) more...

Two stars Hugh? I'm amazed. It was close to five for me - but not quite. Very accomplished though. She's a superb writer. I look forward to reading more books by her.

I've just read Roman Clodia's excellent review of...


Death in Her Hands
Publication date 27 Aug 2020

Click here to read Roman Clodia's review

I've just requested a copy from NetGalley - here's hoping

Nigeyb wrote: "I've just requested a copy of Death in Her Handsfrom NetGalley - here's hoping"


Sadly it was not to be

Turned down

Ah well

I look forward to buying a copy when it comes out

Aw, sorry to hear that - publisher decisions are a mystery sometimes :(

They are. I'm a huge fan - and always try to write considered reviews Ah well. You win some....

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "RC, Nigeyb - tell me about Ottessa Moshfegh."


You're in the right place now Elizabeth

Roman Clodia wrote: "She's hugely original, Elizabeth - I've given up predicting whether friends will get on with her or not. I've loved her last three books, each of which is completely different from the others."

We did My Year of Rest and Relaxation in my book group and it was very divisive

I loved that book so much, as I did Eileen - as you can see above Hugh gave Eileen two stars! It's a strange and wonderful world

Looking at My Year of Rest and Relaxation, it looks as though it was almost written for this, strange, period!

That's a perceptive point Susan - it might well make a good lockdown read

I've had both this, and Eileen, on my TBR list for ages. I really must get to her. My reading has been side tracked, as I have given in and startedWitchfinder which we discussed on the Len Deighton thread.

Witchfinder looks fab

One thing I'd say about Moshfegh is that you have to buy into the narrative voice - if, for any reason, you can't then the book probably won't work for you.

That's a good point RC


I just reread my review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and I noted...

It combines the blankness of Bret Easton Ellis with the pharmacology of Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation

and

An unnamed, wealthy and attractive young New York woman decides to take a year-long sleep. She is aided by Dr Tuttle, a self absorbed and distracted psychiatrist, who always has her prescription pad at the ready and is willing to dole out ever stronger pharmaceuticals (her endless psychobabble, diagnoses and drug descriptions are very funny). The narrator's year long sleep is consistently interrupted by her bulimic "best friend" Reva whose dialogue is peppered with self-help aphorisms and who is usually on some new insane diet.

I love this sort of thing but it is perhaps not to everyone's taste

And after reading Eileen I observed...

Very dark and original with echoes of both Patricia Highsmith and Jim Thompson. Eileen's squalid and vaguely perverse world is compellingly evoked and the finale is the perfect end to a short, tense and absorbing tale

Talking of which, can anyone think of other authors who are similar to Ottessa Moshfegh? I'll bet there's lots I am missing who might join her in my "new favourite authors" club

I love the Highsmith comparison! Yes, they both have that compelling skewed vision, and also a sense of humour amidst the darkness.

An author who I find seems to be channelling a Moshfegh sensibility, and is specific about millennial angst is Halle Butler: see her The New Me, my review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3274133912

I also think Moshfegh is influenced by the darker side of Joyce Carol Oates.

Thanks RC - I'll follow up on those recommendations

Roman Clodia wrote: "One thing I'd say about Moshfegh is that you have to buy into the narrative voice - if, for any reason, you can't then the book probably won't work for you."

The book descriptions say this author isn't for me. Even with the Highsmith comparison. But should I change my mind, my library has digital editions.

I would tend to agree that Eileen and Rest & Relaxation might not be for you, Elizabeth - I wonder if you might like her new one, though, Death in her Hands? If your gut feel says no, then it's probably no!

I never really clicked with Highsmith, but she looks intriguing. I really want to give her a try, but I have been so tied up with work, I haven't had reading time lately.

Roman Clodia wrote: "I would tend to agree that Eileen and Rest & Relaxation might not be for you, Elizabeth - I wonder if you might like her new one, though, Death in her Hands? If your gut feel says n..."

I saw the description, but third on the list, so maybe didn't give it it's full due. ;-)

Well, I have to say that I can't keep on ignoring the obvious enthusiasm for this author from two people whose reading taste so often coincides with my own. So, although I have no time at the moment and really shouldn't start another book I have embarked on:
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Love it so far.

Oooh. Interesting. I look forward to you reaction Susan.

Yay! Fingers crossed you become a Moshfegh convert, Susan!

I will keep you posted! Absolutely loving it so far.

Finished. Wow! Thank you :)

As I just commented on your review, I'm relieved that you liked it so much.

Another convert. Hurrah!

Definitely! Thanks for introducing me to her.

Yay - *so* glad you loved this Susan!

Her new book, Death in her Hands, might still be on NetGalley.

Yes, I requested it and was approved :) Thanks, RC. X

It's interesting as it plays with detective/crime fiction in a clever way - looking forward to your review. It was 5-stars from me!

I am reading a NetGalley book I need to finish, then I will give it a go. Like you, I have accumulated a lot of NetGalley books lately, including the sequel to Magpie Murders and Death in her hands...

Still peeved they turned me down, being an uber fan n all

NetGalley is a bit weird. I hate it when you request a book, forget all about it, and they send it to you just before it is published. I think publishers should have to give you a decision within a certain time period.

Not sure about anyone else, but I've had LOADS of un-requested books landing in my inbox over this period too.

Shame you didn't get that title though, Nigeyb.

Also, a bit gutted the new Riley Sager Home Before Dark is neither on NetGalley, or on kindle in the UK.

Yes, some publishers seem to hold off till the day before or actually on release date so that I feel pressure to read it immediately.

I enjoyed Moonflower Murders but far prefer the modern story with Susan investigating - the inset book dragged for me, and reminded me of how deft and light Christie is in comparison.

Oh well, you can't compare any crime writer to Christie :) She's still head and shoulders above everyone. Hence, our desire to have another Christie challenge next year on Detectives!

Must confess I have not tried Moshfegh, but have just received a newsletter from CrimeReads.com with a link to an interview with her:

https://crimereads.com/ottessa-moshfe...

Interestingly, she wrote her newest novel several years ago, put it aside, then decided to go back to it.

Thanks for the link, Judy.

Interview in today’s Guardian.....



https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

I've finally got hold of a copy of...


Death in Her Hands

...and have just started it. Really looking forward to it.

First impressions are that Ottessa has adoped a deliberately bland (slightly annoying?) narrative voice which is in quite different to Eileen and My Year.

All I know so far is that Vesta is an old widow who seems to live in a remote rural cabin - and, of course, that strange note she finds in the woods

I have only read this and My Year. Greatly preferred My Year, but liked this too. Hope you enjoy it.

Yes, I'd agree (happily) that the narrative voice is very different from the other two books but I loved this and also think it is very clever.

Thanks RC, thanks Susan


I've read on a bit and I'm bored. Vesta is a boring narrator and a boring character. Perhaps that's the point and all will become clear as I read on? So far it feels like a dud, especially when compared with the brilliance of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Eileen

Here's hoping it picks up soon

Sad to say that if you think she's boring now, you're unlikely to change your mind, Nigeyb. I loved this but at least one book friend had the same experience as you and didn't gel with Vesta after loving Rest & Relaxation. You might have to consider cutting your losses and ditching it?

ps. Just checked, my friend gave this 1 star, after 5 stars for R&R

Thanks RC. I will stick with it as I feel so positively towards Ottessa however my expectations are suitably managed now