“Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh

Reading this book was a slightly surreal experience. I think that no matter what, I would have had the same response as I turned the last page (that response being,  “Well, that was weird.”). But pile on top the juxtaposition of the book’s setting (the East coat of the U.S. in freezing weather, and everything was ugly) with my own setting (vacation in Costa Rica, where it is never freezing and everything is beautiful) and the weird coincidences (the book takes place in the days leading up to Christmas, and I read it in the days following Christmas) and you get the surreality. I also oddly conflated this book with the one I read before it (the main character could be described as atypical, had a strained relationship with her father, and her mother had passed away previously) and the two I read before that (since this character kept mentioning her future in NYC). 

Eileen is a 24-year old girl who lives with her alcoholic ex-cop father and works as a secretary at the local prison for boys. Her life is filled with shame and disgust, mixed in with a bit of fantasy. She plans to run away to NYC at some point in the nebulous future, but currently she is… well, content is probably the wrong word, as she’s really just numbly moving forward in time, keeping her father stocked with gin and occasionally daydreaming about Randy the prison guard. Enter Rebecca, a beautiful redheaded new hire at the prison who surprises Eileen by paying attention to her, and who surprised me at least once. 

I’m so glad I had *something* to read, even if it felt like it knocked me a little off balance.