My newest read by Ottessa Moshfegh is a collection of short stories featuring inadapted outwordly characters not trying to fit into the narrative. But who is there to define the normality? And what about us, the average, being blinded to believe that everyone actually fits a certain drawer on the neat shelf of life?
Homesick for Another World has, in my opinion, a richer writing potential than her previous books. Her novels feature a character, that takes over the whole story, not allowing other characters to grow in its shadows. Instead, the short stories although they may be built around one specific character, they nevertheless fit into a landscape and interact with other people/characters, mostly outsider to the accepted narrative.
If we look with fresh eyes around our immediate reality, we may discover that in fact, indeed, being human often does not have to do with what is expected to be human. There are lonely people, people longing for another world, never succeeding in their life, emotional and sentimental failures - in love, by auditions, in their marriages. It always depends where are you looking for. And some people may be just destroyed when forced to operate in a normal - capitalistic - environment. Maybe there is something more to a life struggling to answer other people and society´s expectations, isn´t it?
Another difference with the novels by her I´ve read until now is the ethnic diversity of the characters. However, they all operate within the American context, and many of them do have body fat problems - from the easthetical point of view.
The style is precise and focused as usual, recreating scenes where the characters are let in. Nothing is out of place in the story, except the people themselves, longing for another world.
Rating: 4 stars
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