Shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize and chosen by David Sedaris as his recommended book for his Fall 2016 tour. So here we are. My name was Eileen Dunlop. Now you know me. I was twenty-four years old then, and had a job that paid fifty-seven dollars a week as a kind of secretary at a private juvenile correctional facility for teenage boys. I think of it now as what it really was for all … now as what it really was for all intents and purposes—a prison for boys. I will call it Moorehead. Delvin Moorehead was a terrible landlord I had years later, and so to use his name for such a place feels appropriate. In a week, I would run away from home and never go back.
This is the story of how I disappeared.
The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.
Played out against the snowy landscape of coastal New England in the days leading up to Christmas, young Eileen’s story is told from the gimlet-eyed perspective of the now much older narrator. Creepy, mesmerizing, and sublimely funny, in the tradition of Shirley Jackson and early Vladimir Nabokov, this powerful debut novel enthralls and shocks, and introduces one of the most original new voices in contemporary literature.
From the Hardcover edition.
more
Eileen was well written and engaging all the way through, but the pacing seemed strange to me. The climax of the book happens very quickly relative to the build up or the narration leading up to it.
“Eileen” in this book almost persuaded me to let the housework go and leave the dishes in the sink –and take to drinking strong spirits. More important, this book got me writing again, after a long block. A most unusual book.
Thanks to NetGalley and to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing, Jonathan Cape, for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel that I have freely chosen to review.
I confess that I did look at some of the reviews on this novel before writing mine and they are very evenly divided. Some people love it and others can’t stand it. Yes, I guess it’s a Marmite kind of novel. Why? Having checked the novel in several online stores I noticed that it is classified under mystery novels, and if lovers of the genre of mystery read this novel I suspect many of them are bound to feel cheated or disappointed. Literary fiction, which is another one of the categories it is classified under, perhaps is a better fit.
The story is an in-depth look at a character, the Eileen of the title, who is narrating an episode of her own life, in the first person. It is not strictly written as a memoir. As I observed recently when reviewing a novel also told from the point of view of the older character looking back and reflecting at her young self (in that case it was Anne Boleyn), these kinds of books have the added interest for the reader of trying to work out how much of what is being told is filtered by the wishes of the older person to provide a positive portrayal of their young selves. In this case, what is quite shocking is that either that younger Eileen had no endearing features, or the older Eileen is trying to make herself feel better and reassure herself that she’s come a very long way, indeed.
Eileen is a lonely young woman (twenty-four at the time of the episode she describes), whose mother died years back, who has a very superficial relationship with her only sister (who no longer lives at home and who seems to be very different), and who lives with her father, a retired policeman, an alcoholic and paranoid man, who sees hoodlums and conspiracies everywhere. From the mentions she makes of her mother and her past experiences, her childhood was also sad and the opposite of nurturing, with both parents drinking heavily, and neither of them having any interest in family life (and even less in Eileen, as her sister seemed to be the favourite). She lives in a derelict house, drives an old car with exhaust problems, works at a young boy’s prison, and has no friends or hobbies, other than shoplifting and looking at National Geographic magazines. She lives in a world of fantasy, and even her physiological functions are bizarre.
In some ways, the novel reminded me of Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller because of the narrator, who was also very self-absorbed and had no empathy for anybody, although in that case, it wasn’t evident from the star. Here, Eileen sees and observes things carefully as if cataloguing everything that happens, but has nothing good to say about anybody, apart from the people she gets crushes on (however undeserving they might be).
The novel, full of details which can be seen as sad, shocking, or bizarre but humane depending on our point of view, hints from the beginning at something momentous that is going to happen and has influenced the choice of the point at which the story starts. A couple of new employees come to work at the prison and Rebecca, a young and glamorous woman (at least from Eileen’s point of view) becomes Eileen’s new obsession. She tries her best to deserve this woman’s attention and that gets her in some trouble that I guess it the mystery part (and I won’t discuss to avoid spoilers, even though as I said I don’t think the novel fits in that genre easily, although perhaps it shares similarities with some classics of the genre, and I’ve seen mentions of Patricia Highsmith. Ripley, perhaps?). From the reviews, I saw that some readers were disappointed by the ending, although it fits in well with the rest of the book. (And from the point of view of the character, at least, it feels positive.)
The novel is beautifully written (although the content itself is not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination), detailed and fantastically observed, and it works as an impressive psychological study, that had me wondering about all kinds of personality disorder types of diagnosis (although the whole family are depicted as very dysfunctional). It is difficult to empathise with such a character, although she seems to be an extreme representation of somebody with low self-esteem and completely self-obsessed (and at a lesser level, even if we might not feel comfortable acknowledging it, most of us have contemplated some of her thoughts or feelings at some point). She is relentless in her dislike for almost everybody and everything, but even her older self remains unapologetic (and well, it takes guts to just not care at all). I could not help but wonder how much better she is now, despite her words, as her comments indicate that she hasn’t changed an iota. If anything, she’s come into herself. But I guess self-acceptance is a big change for her.
I found it a fascinating novel, a case study of the weird and disturbed, pretty noir, but not a read I would recommend everybody. (After all, I’m a psychiatrist…) It is not a feel-good or a nice novel to read but it might be for you if you like weirdly compelling characters and are happy to go with a narrator who is not sympathetic at all. I don’t think I’ll forget Eileen or its author in a hurry.
I read this over a two week period, comfortably logging in an hour or so every night before going to bed.
In retrospect, this accurately describes the pacing of the book. It didn’t demand a stay-awake-all- night marathon. Instead, it meanders in the immediately accessible first person voice of the protagonist, Eileen. An odd duck of a girl, she lives in New England, works at a boys prison and has very little interaction with anyone, save for her alcoholic and abusive father.
The plot is slow burn and rich with promise, especially when sexy sphinx of an antagonist Rebecca Saint John shows up at the prison, enthralling the nebbish and sexually repressed Eileen.
Only four stars as the promise of the story didn’t quite measure up in the end. Without spoiling it, the climax felt rushed, given the time frame of the events leading up to it. This however, shouldn’t deter any one from reading the story. Vivid and crackling with excellent prose, at times I cheered for Eileen while simultaneously wanting to give her a kick in the arse.
Now this was my kind of novel. Eileen is a weird, not very likeable, or charismatic character. She still lives with her father. She’s the perfect anti-heroine. She turns dark and creepy. Yet I rooted for her. I loved this one.
Exceptionally well written–the characterization of the main character drives the story. The ending was unexpected, but fully within the emotional and psychological bounds of the story. Read this if you want a good read; read this if you are a writer and want to sharpen your craft.
It’s frightening to think of what lonely people will do for friendship and what they will choose to overlook. Eileen has a desperately impoverished life whose path crosses with a disturbed, but captivating young woman. The reader knows generally where this is heading, but can’t wait to learn the details.
I liked it a lot. Eileen Dunlop is not a likable character. No happiness here. Friendless, awkward socially and given to some rather odd fantasies about escaping her wearisome life, I suspected this would be weird tale soon after my reading began. It was, and the writing was wonderful. You don’t have to root for the protagonist every time. Good book.
The first half of the book was so draggy and depressing that I had to stop and re-read the reviews that convinced me to buy it. David Sedaris top choice, rave reviews fro Washington Post, short-listed for big awards. I just shook my head in wonder. What was I missing? But I was convinced to go back and try to finish. So glad I did – the second half was great. Do I recommend? Depends on your ability to get through a lot of gray to get to the gold.
Very dark and very slow. It was a painful read.
I dont generally like books that are this dark, but the writing was just brilliant.
Yuck
Really depressing
Sad, mean, hilarious, terrifying, heartbreaking.
Never read a bigger effort to create a totally repulsive human being. I read to the end, and it kept my attention, but I can’t recommend it. Eileen pretty much revolted me as a person.
I couldn’t get through it.
Very strange indeed
I found this novel to be quirky and interesting. The characters were odd, but believable. It was definitely a good read. Recommended.
This book was bizarre and dark. I thought about walking away from it several times, but was hoping that the end would justify the time spent. Nope.
ugh, Eilieen is tiresome
There were no redeeming qualities to any of this novel’s characters. It was the worst “downer” of a book I’ve ever read.