Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Homesick for Another World

When I was reading the second story in this collection and the protagonist started thinking about sexual acts involving swimming in sewage, and then further details the acts this character performs on a young sex worker, I was going to stop reading, despite my aversion to not finishing books. I wish I had.

I was puzzled reading this about all the positive reviews I had seen of it. Every story seemed a pointless excuse for Moshfegh to describe something disgusting, insult a random fat side character, and call somebody r*tarded. A few of the later stories, such as Slumming, The Beach Boy, and A Better Place were (comparatively) charming and driven, but the abrupt endings in the latter of these two were discouraging.

The only saving grace I could find for these stories was that Moshfegh is clearly creative in thinking of vignettes of different shades of upsetting people. However, I don't feel as if her writing was strong enough to carry them. Each sentence was short and blunt. The simple sentences lent themselves to the subject matter I suppose, but it was not an artful or particularly nice reading experience. It read more like the begrudging English assignment of a super senior than that of a critically acclaimed author. Not to mention none of her characters were distinguishable from one another. All spoke with the same voice. The most discription anything received were fat characters that Moshfegh seemed to delight in calling disgusting and horrible. And anytime someone from a minority was mentioned, there was some weird aside that the narrator needed to have.

The idea of challenging what the purpose of fiction is and the role of a main character is an intriguing prospect, and this, along with the few stories that stood out to me as genuine, are the reason I'm giving this a higher rating than 0 or 1. But there's no skill or point behind it, to me, other than to shock and disgust. Most of these stories had nothing to say. To make something realistic in its unappetizing circumstances means nothing when you're doing the same trick over and over again. "It's so bad here, what if there were something better? Well, there's not." Cool!

And unfortunately there's not even a single story that's about aliens.

Content Warnings

ericj32's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

Overall, the writing is simple, blunt, and erratic - kind of degrading to read. Lots of sad, sloppy, angry people looking for sex or some kind of warped version of happiness (usually just sex, though). Nothing really enjoyable or interesting about this for me.

Content Warnings

tessa_specchio's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

definitely more than a little grotesque. i felt kind of nauseous. huge impact though
grotesque in a good way

Content Warnings

faduma's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

Content Warnings

theminimalistbookclub's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

are you kidding me? do i want to read about perverts? about disgusting men who rape, stalk and despise woman? about cheating husbands (and about cheating wives tho')? no. this book really pisses me off, it makes me angry, it haunts me.

Content Warnings

reginahafner_'s review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

zailkkk's review against another edition

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dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

marianneiriss's review against another edition

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I don’t generally read short stories but I thought I’d try these as everyone seems to love them, got about half way through and I still wasn’t enjoying it enough to continue reading despite the slightly unnecessary amount of graphic stuff - would’ve carried on if the graphic descriptions had been relevant and/or the stories interesting but I found the style irritating overall.

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