There are some novels that seduce you with their ugliness – stories that pull you into worlds so grim and characters so unsavory that you find yourself enthralled despite your better judgment. Ottessa Moshfegh’s debut novel “Eileen” is precisely this kind of literary trap, a masterfully crafted psychological portrait that combines the claustrophobia of small-town New England with the suffocating interior life of a profoundly disturbed young woman.
Set in the 1960s in a coastal town the narrator calls X-ville, “Eileen” tells the story of 24-year-old Eileen Dunlop during her final week working as a secretary at a juvenile boys’ correctional facility (which she refers to as “Moorehead”) before her dramatic disappearance. From the opening pages, we understand we’re in the hands of an older, transformed Eileen, looking back on her miserable youth with both distance and startling clarity.
A Character Study in Self-Loathing
What makes “Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh so compelling is its unflinching character study. Eileen herself is among the most memorably unpleasant protagonists in recent fiction—and that’s precisely what makes her fascinating. Moshfegh constructs a character of such vivid self-loathing that readers will find themselves both repelled and utterly captivated.
Eileen lives with her alcoholic ex-cop father, acting as his reluctant caretaker while harboring fantasies of his death. She wears her dead mother’s ill-fitting clothes, shoplifts compulsively, and obsesses over her bodily functions with disturbing intensity. Her constipation becomes a recurring motif, as does her habit of using laxatives to purge herself. These details might seem excessive, but they serve to establish Eileen’s profound alienation from her own body and from others.
Some of Moshfegh’s most powerful writing comes in these unflattering self-descriptions:
“I looked like a girl you’d expect to see on a city bus, reading some clothbound book from the library about plants or geography, perhaps wearing a net over my light brown hair. You might take me for a nursing student or a typist, note the nervous hands, a foot tapping, bitten lip. I looked like nothing special.”
The Prison Setting: Both Literal and Metaphorical
The prison where Eileen works functions as both setting and metaphor. Moorehead confines its juvenile inmates in much the same way Eileen feels trapped by her circumstances. The descriptions of the prison’s dreary routines and the casual cruelty inflicted on the boys mirror Eileen’s own stunted emotional development.
Moshfegh excels at creating atmosphere. The cold New England winter, with its oppressive snow and ice, becomes another character in the story. The setting works brilliantly to enhance themes of isolation and imprisonment:
“Unless you’ve grown up in New England, you don’t know the peculiar stillness of a coastal town covered in snow at night. It is not like in other places. The light does something funny at sunset. It seems not to wane but to recede out toward the ocean. The light just gets pulled away.”
The Catalyst: Rebecca Saint John
The narrative shifts dramatically with the arrival of Rebecca Saint John, the prison’s new education director. Beautiful, confident, and sophisticated, Rebecca represents everything Eileen is not. Eileen’s immediate infatuation with Rebecca propels the story forward, transforming what began as character study into something more akin to psychological thriller.
Rebecca’s arrival marks a crucial turning point, as Eileen describes:
“Meeting Rebecca was like learning to dance, discovering jazz. It was like falling in love for the first time. I had always been waiting for my future to erupt around me in an avalanche of glory, and now I felt it was really happening.”
What makes this relationship so fascinating is its ambiguity. Is it romantic attraction? Hero worship? A desperate need for friendship? Moshfegh keeps these questions simmering beneath the surface, adding layers of complexity to their interactions.
The Crime and Its Aftermath
Without revealing too much, the final third of the novel accelerates into unexpected territory when Rebecca draws Eileen into a disturbing scheme involving a prisoner and his mother. The plot takes a Hitchcockian turn, building toward a conclusion that is both shocking and somehow inevitable. Moshfegh handles this tonal shift with remarkable skill, maintaining the psychological depth established earlier while introducing genuine suspense.
The culmination of this plot serves as the catalyst for Eileen’s long-desired escape from X-ville. What could have been melodramatic in less capable hands instead feels like the natural outcome of all that came before—the perfect storm of circumstances that finally breaks Eileen free from her prison.
Moshfegh’s Distinctive Prose Style
One of the novel’s greatest strengths is Moshfegh’s prose, which balances literary sophistication with raw, often visceral description. She writes with unflinching precision about bodily functions, physical discomfort, and the mundane horrors of daily life. Yet this bluntness is counterbalanced by passages of startling beauty and insight.
Consider this description of Eileen’s father’s alcoholism:
“I’ve heard a sip of gin will make you immune to mosquitoes and other pests. So perhaps he drank it with that logic in mind.”
This ability to oscillate between the grotesque and the poetic, often within a single paragraph, creates a reading experience unlike any other. Moshfegh refuses to look away from life’s ugliness but finds strange beauty in it nonetheless.
Thematic Depth: Identity, Escape, and Reinvention
At its core, “Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh explores profound questions about identity and self-reinvention. The older narrator constantly reminds us that she is no longer Eileen, having shed that identity like an unwanted skin. This tension between past and present, between who we are and who we might become, provides the novel’s emotional backbone.
The theme of escape resonates throughout—not just physical escape from X-ville, but escape from one’s own limitations, from family legacy, from social expectations. Moshfegh suggests that sometimes radical, even criminal actions are necessary to break free from cycles of misery.
As the older narrator reflects near the end:
“I tell you I felt strangely calm. The weight of the gun, the money in my purse told me yes, it’s time. Get out of here.”
Critiques: Pacing and Resolution
While “Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh is a remarkable achievement, it’s not without flaws. The pacing occasionally drags, particularly in the novel’s middle section where Eileen’s daily routines become repetitive. Some readers might find the relentless focus on bodily functions and physical discomfort excessive or off-putting.
The novel’s conclusion, while powerful, leaves certain narrative threads unresolved. While this ambiguity serves thematic purposes – mirroring Eileen’s own sudden departure – it may frustrate readers seeking more conventional closure. The abrupt shift from psychological portrait to crime thriller also requires some adjustment, though Moshfegh ultimately makes this transition work.
Comparisons and Literary Context
“Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh fits comfortably alongside other works focused on disturbed, socially isolated female protagonists. Readers of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and early Joyce Carol Oates will find familiar psychological territory here, though Moshfegh’s voice remains distinctly her own.
The novel also prefigures themes that would appear in Moshfegh’s later work, including “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” and her short story collection “Homesick for Another World.” Her consistent interest in female alienation, bodily discomfort, and social detachment marks her as one of our most daring contemporary literary voices.
Final Assessment: A Remarkable Debut
“Eileen” announces Ottessa Moshfegh as a singular talent unafraid to explore the darkest corners of human experience. While not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, the novel rewards readers willing to follow its disturbing journey with insights about identity, escape, and the possibility of transformation.
What lingers after the final page is not just the plot’s resolution but the character of Eileen herself – complicated, unpleasant, yet undeniably human in her desperate desire to become someone else. In her, Moshfegh has created an unforgettable anti-heroine whose voice remains with readers long after her story concludes.
Key Strengths:
- Unforgettable, complex protagonist
- Atmospheric setting that enhances thematic elements
- Precise, unflinching prose style
- Sophisticated psychological portrait
- Compelling exploration of identity and transformation
Areas for Consideration:
- Occasionally uneven pacing
- Potentially excessive focus on bodily functions
- Abrupt genre shift in final third
- Some unresolved narrative elements
For readers who appreciate psychologically complex characters, atmospheric settings, and prose that doesn’t flinch from life’s ugliness, “Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh offers a reading experience as unsettling as it is unforgettable – announcing Moshfegh as one of our most fearless literary talents.
