Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh: Book Review

Eileen, the narrator of this story is an old woman in her seventies who reflects on the events in her life when she was twenty four- the events that changed her life. In the book the writer has described very dark life of a very sad and lonely girl in need of a touch of warmth and a streak of affection. The life of the young desolate girl is so miserably pathetic that one gets touched and saddened as one comes to terms with the dark depths of a defenseless girl tormented by her own father, who is alcoholic and elder sister who constantly ridicules her till she disappears. Broken internally, Eileen lives a resigned life fantasizing to run away somewhere till the day she meets Rebecca.

A must read we give the book a 17 in a scale of 20.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

The Sellout is a modern comedy on the post racial society of America. In a gripping and gushing flow of words, the book in a satirical way is a brilliant work of the effects of lost identities in a post racial world. The protagonist finds himself in a world where his hometown, Dickens, is removed from the map. Facing an identity crisis the along with an assortment of powerful characters tries to resurrect the town and also bring back segregation and ends up in Supreme Court in a case involving Me versus US smoking marijuana and narrating in first person about himself and the lost town and its people waiting for the final judgement.

The book is a hilarious comedy with plenty of sadness. Ina scale of 20 we give it 17.5.

All That Man Is by David Szalay

'All That Man Is' is a collection of nine stories of nine different people across thirteen countries of Europe including UK. Although the nine stories are not directly connected or knitted yet it gives an impression of nine different stages of a man (across ages i.e.) in modern world grappling with all the ills, love, loneliness and financial meltdowns while travelling through Europe. The writer has brilliantly captured the dull everyday life with very impressive character development and perfect description of the feelings associated with transient moments. The book being basically nine different stories, one is tempted to put down the book after finishing each story but then one does eventually return back to finish the book, such is the style of writing.

n a scale of 20 we give it 17.5.