Ottessa Moshfegh is one sick weirdo, and I can't get enough of her
Ever since seeing the reviews and basically liking the look of the cover art for My Year of Rest and Relaxation, I’ve been interested in reading some of Ottessa Moshfegh’s work. So, as I’ve been doing a lot lately, as a way to sample authors I’m curious about, I’m starting with a short-story collection. In this case, Moshfegh’s Homesick for Another World from 2017.
“Bettering Myself” starts things off, about a young woman named Miss Mooney who teaches in a religious school and sleeps there in between drunken benders. She is divorced from a business bro who wasn’t very nice to her and now has a boyfriend who only talks about himself. The story actually kind of reminds me of the hilarious TV show A.P Bio, as—like that program’s Glenn Howerton as the worthless teacher—she doesn’t teach the kids much, talks about highly inappropriate things, and alters the kids’ answers on the big exam so it looks like she has indeed taught them something, thus potentially keeping her job for at least a little longer. Miss Mooney goes out at night with a friend from Long Island who brings them bad cocaine and takes her out clubbing to look for men to bring home. When her ex plans to come to town to see her, she takes the moment to straighten back out her life. We don’t quite know what she is expecting. And like the rest of the story, nothing much happens when the ex visits, but I don’t think that’s really the author’s point. I like it all a lot.
4.5 out of 5 stars
“Mr. Wu” is a strange little story about a strange little man who is in love with the owner of an arcade. He decides to text her professing this love even though they only barely know of each other. In between trips to see prostitutes, he plans to meet her, but we aren’t clear what happens at the end. It’s an enjoyable story about middle-aged loneliness.
4 out of 5 stars
The third story in the collection, “Malibu,” kind of seals it for me. Moshfegh is one strange author. But I still like her stuff plenty. This one is about an unemployed loser who fills out fake jobs on his forms. He tries calling a number he has made up for one of the jobs and a Native American woman answers. They talk a little and agree that he’ll come out to her place for a date. Meanwhile he visits his uncle, who would like his nephew to put his ashes into outer space. The nephew doesn’t like that potentially cost-prohibitive idea but agrees to drive out to Malibu to look for other possibilities. The man then goes to visit the woman, who is not very good looking but lets him put his hand deep into her mouth. It’s apparently enjoyable to both.
4 out of 5 stars
I’ve got to read another. This one is called “The Weirdos.” Unfortunately it’s the weakest of this bunch. Still a quick decent read, but it kind of stutters and starts about a couple that lives in an apartment with birds flying all around and annoying them. The man is a weirdo actor who annoys his girlfriend (annoying boyfriends seems to be a running theme for Moshfegh) and talks all the time about how great he is. Another strange couple arrives and says they have to move in as renters, without even seeing the inside. They just know it’s the right place for them. Everyone in this story is weird and all their lives appear to be stuck in neutral. I’m not sure what it all means, other than that life just is what it is for many people … many weirdos.
3 out of 5 stars
But still, I can’t get enough and don’t want to end my Moshfegh binge on a relatively sour note. I realized she has a story in my copy of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists 3. It’s called “Brom” and I can’t imagine more could be packed into a 10-page short story. Brom is some kind of feudal lord who whiles away the days in his castle bedroom examining his back in a mirror on the floor and pulling injected objects out of his ass. After his sister is murdered on the property, he inexplicably befriends and employs her killer. They go on a murder spree through the village, finally going to visit and kill his mad old mother at her nunnery. It’s a more entertaining ride than I perhaps make it sound.
5 out of 5 stars