Eileen by Ottesa Moshfegh

There are over 1000 reviews of this book, so you don't need me to add to the controversy, but just to clear the bad taste from my mouth, I have to say that this book gives lit fic a bad name. It deliberately goes nowhere, like an experiment in screwing with the reader---just enough red herrings to think something will happen. What really bothers me is that the books pumped up by critics these days seem to have less craft, creativity, memorable or emotional content than ever before. It feels like a reflection of where our society is headed (you read the news, right? 2016 is banner for the new low) and I find it very disheartening. I've forgotten this book already except as an example of what I don't want to write and don't want to read.

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