Eileen is the stunning debut novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, an American writer who was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for her efforts. The novel is the story of Eileen, the boorish daughter of a police officer who lives in a small town outside of Boston in the 1960s and who works as a receptionist at a juvenile prison, where she gets caught up in a bizarre crime. That crime takes up only the last fourth or fifth of the short novel. The rest is us just getting to know Eileen, her habits, and her house life.
A new take on the anti-heroine, Eileen depicts the titular character as plain, slovenly, alcoholic, naive, and slightly stupid, but we cannot help but root for her. The narration is from the present day (the book was written in 2015), so we know she survives, and clues are given about her life after leaving "X-ville," where she commits her unusual crime. I can't wait to read more from this author.
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