Cover art on her books is consistently far better than the contents deserve
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Thursday, 9 April 2020 12:30 (four years ago) link
I'm surprised I haven't seen more mentions of 'My Year...' as proto-quarantine lit.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 9 April 2020 14:00 (four years ago) link
“Sub-American Psycho shit” is still basically where I am with “my year” but I would watch the lanthimos adaptation no question
― Microbes oft teem (wins), Thursday, 9 April 2020 14:04 (four years ago) link
sad this got pushed back but i have enough to read rn i guess
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 9 April 2020 17:45 (four years ago) link
i read mcglue a little after i was being grumpy on this thread. maybe i would have felt more charitable about it had i not read my year first but, gosh.
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 16 April 2020 12:47 (four years ago) link
She is very gifted but what I’ve read of her work is incredibly and unrelentingly misanthropic. The fact that someone so talented is writing about characters like this—like, that this is for her a plausible representation of humanity as such, even if it’s supposed to be a slight parody—is cause for alarm I think.
― treeship., Thursday, 16 April 2020 14:10 (four years ago) link
I’ve only read that short story collection and the stories were really funny and well-crafted but unrelenting. There really wasn’t any sympathy or generosity in there, that I saw, to add levity to the pettiness and seething hatred. This was the source of the humor, obviously—like a really committed version of curb your enthusiasm—but it seems notable that these kind of characters and narratives feel naturalistic to contemporary. It’s like one part of human psychology has been given outsized prominence. It’s either a problem with capitalism or with fiction.
― treeship., Thursday, 16 April 2020 14:18 (four years ago) link
*feels naturalistic to contemporary readers
Including myself, I should say. I wouldn’t be surprised to open up the minds of other New Yorkers, for instance, and find these kinds of bizarre solipsistic dramas playing out.
― treeship., Thursday, 16 April 2020 14:21 (four years ago) link
McGlue seems like it could be interesting though. Hard to imagine what she’d do with a historical setting.
― treeship., Thursday, 16 April 2020 14:27 (four years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/books/ottessa-moshfegh-death-in-her-hands.html
― johnny crunch, Friday, 17 April 2020 16:02 (four years ago) link
Just finished the new one, love it.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 2 July 2020 01:22 (three years ago) link
Nice didn’t realize it was out yet
― flopson, Thursday, 2 July 2020 05:42 (three years ago) link