Random House Books for Young Readers Eileen

El libro llego según lo programado y en buenas condiciones

Eileen is a 24-year-old residing with her paranoid, delusional, alcoholic father—a retired cop-- in a decaying, unkempt New England house. She hates her dreary days, her sleepless nights, and her menial job at a boys' correctional facility. It’s Christmas week, 1964, dank, glum, and bitter cold. Her father taunts and abuses her, and makes sexual gestures that were difficult and disturbing to read. He’s a danger to himself and others, but his cop frenemies are afraid of him, too. Eileen has to lock away his shoes to keep him homebound. Disgusted by him, by herself, by her troubles, she locks herself away in her room most of the time.Eileen's gallows humor and self-destructive ways will seize you from the start; her tense and twisted mind is irresistible. She paints her lips with garish lipstick in order to hide their true hue, which she says are the color of her nipples. She’s disgusted by any body parts that convey sexuality, but has a celibate crush on one of the detention workers, Randy. On weekends, she drives by his house and parks there for hours, never even sneaking a peek. At home she tries to hide from her father and drinks herself to sleep. She chews her food and then spits it out. She’s whip thin and undernourished, routinely denying what her body needs.Sexual appetites—any appetites, repulse Eileen. She considers bodily functions disgusting, so she tries to control them, deny them. Her diet, laxative use and clothing choices are all in favor of resisting maturity and becoming invisible. The trauma she’s endured all her life is devastating. It's no shock that she grew into a self-hating girl-woman.Still a virgin, Eileen assumes that sex will have to be forced and violent. “Of course I hoped to be raped by only the most soulful, gentle, handsome of men, somebody who was secretly in love with me.” She considers her sister, Joanie, a whore for running off with a boyfriend at age seventeen. There’s no one in Eileen’s life to serve as a role model. Eileen’s nasty, self-centered mother died years ago from cancer--Eileen reluctantly took care of her at the end.I grew up near Boston (this is near Boston) and remember the short days of winter, cracked and soggy simultaneously. That squelch when your boots hit the slush, and the snowy ice melting and refreezing, this cycle going on for weeks. Moshfegh captured it so meticulously, plus the weak light of day that glared at you despite its low wattage, the dark of New England winter nights—the absolute blackness of the season. The dour gloom of this story would be total if not for the reader's foreknowledge that Eileen does get away. She is narrating this story fifty years into the future, dropping small but rich details of her life over the years.Eileen’s hunger for liberty is captivating. Her exile at home corresponds to her menial job at a juvie prison. Her life is defined by confinement, isolation, and her morbid sense of self. She has a car and a decent bank account, yet she doesn't comprehend her own agency. She's stuck. Not until she meets a new counselor at the facility, an enigmatic woman named Rebecca, does she see an escape route. She is transfixed, intoxicated, enamored. She wants Rebecca as her BFF, she’s buzzed by Rebecca’s charisma, her infectious presence. Randy is discarded; Eileen has no room now for anyone but her new friend. She self-appoints Rebecca to lead her out of darkness.That is the story—Eileen’s sense of self, her captivity, her desire for release. I felt every minute of Eileen’s belief in her own incarceration. She’s convinced her isolation is physical. When she meets Rebecca, it's an epic moment for Eileen. Her inflection point.Moshfegh taunts us with Eileen’s raw convictions, her shredded self-esteem. We wait painfully for her tortured gnawing to shift. Trauma and abuse are immobilizing, demoralizing, but we are creatures of hope and desire. Eileen (the novel) is wretched, pervy, and thrilling; Eileen, the character, is determined, inexorable. The story is drab, foul, creepy, and permissibly wearying, yet seductive and compelling. Moshfegh may be an acquired taste, it took me a minute to adjust to the style.Hot button triggers are deployed on every page. Eileen is not for everyone—trigger warning!

Eileen is an interesting character that is hard to put into words, she evokes sympathy and repulsion while drawing you into the story. It is a slow burn, with deeply descriptive settings that you feel like you can see for yourself whole reading.I deeply enjoyed this story, like most of Moshfegh’s writing.

Todo bien con el envío, y así, pero llego con la portada rota 😩.

Eileen takes care of her demented alcoholic father and works in a prison for boys. It is the 1960s and she is dreaming of the day she has the guts to leave for the big city, New York. Eileen is a mess. She shoplifts, is full of self-hate, and she stalks a man at work. Then Revecca comes to work and Eileen is obsessed with her as she becomes her first friend. But things turn horribly wrong.Ottessa's first book is an award winner and one of my favourites of hers. Like most of her books, the horror comes at the end but it is a bumpy ride getting there. The narrative is witty and dark. Eileen is not a likeable person but her story is compelling. As she tells this story from the future, foreshadowing keeps us on edge wondering what is going to happen. A slowly moving story with a fast conclusion; this held me riveted.