She’s blunt about her opinion of her own talent: “I’m not going to be making cappuccinos. She’s described her stories as “like seeing Kate Moss take a shit” and bragged that she started writing Eileen just to prove “how easy is” to write a successful thriller. In public, Moshfegh seems to delight in undercutting her own fans and acclaim. Each of these books has been well-reviewed, even as critics have sometimes balked at the misanthropy and frequent descriptions of bodily excretions. Her works so far have featured a possibly murderous drunk (the underrated novella McGlue), an ugly-inside-and-out secretary who hates everyone and everything (the PEN/Hemingway-winning and Man Booker-shortlisted novel Eileen), and a host of enjoyable nasty and cranky protagonists in her excellent short story collection Homesick for Another World. To be clear, I mean that as a compliment. Ottessa Moshfegh’s oeuvre reads almost like an attempt to see just how “unlikeable” characters can get. If you’re the type of reader who is looking for friends, Ottessa Moshfegh is probably not the writer for you. Who you’d “like to have a beer with” isn’t a great way to elect presidents or create characters. Many nice people are dull as dirt on the page (why do you think Facebook has an “unfollow” button?), while literature is full of morally questionable assholes that are a pure delight to spend time with. Is a character-no matter how cruel, bitter, or immoral-someone you like to read about?.Is a non-existent fictional character a “good person” that you’d want to “be friends with”?.Part of what’s so irritating about the idea of “unlikeable characters” is that that it confuses two different questions. “If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble.” The exchange kicked off a debate about “unlikeable characters,” a concept that frustrates most authors, especially since - as Messud pointed out - readers are more likely to complain about a character’s likeability if the character is a woman. “For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that?” Messud replied. In 2013, Claire Messud was asked by an interviewer if she’d want to be friends with one of her bitter protagonists.
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