Homesick for Another World

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2017

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Background

Authorial Context: Ottessa Moshfegh

Ottessa Moshfegh was born in Boston, MA in 1981. Her mother immigrated to the US from Croatia and her father from Iran, and both parents were musicians who taught at the New England Conservatory of Music. As a child, Moshfegh seemed likely to follow in her parents’ footsteps, studying both piano and clarinet. After graduating from Barnard College in 2002, she moved to Wuhan, China, where she taught English and worked at a punk bar. In 2006, she returned to New York and began working at Overlook Press, a publisher that specializes in books ignored by other presses. Moshfegh was immersed in the literary world of New York City, and her peers in publishing encouraged her to pursue writing full-time. In 2011, she completed an MFA from the prestigious creative writing program at Brown University. In 2012, The Paris Review published “Disgust,” which appears in Homesick For Another World as “Mr. Wu.” Moshfegh quickly became known as an important voice in American fiction, with a number of short stories appearing in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and other prominent literary magazines.

Moshfegh’s fiction is characterized by its acute observation of the darkest corners of humanity. Her razor-sharp prose evokes a sense of unease and disquietude even as Moshfegh describes seemingly ordinary people and situations. Her novel Eileen (2015) is a dark psychological thriller set in 1960s New England. The titular character is a young woman working in a private juvenile detention center, whose obsession with a new coworker leads to the discovery of horrific violence. Eileen earned Moshfegh widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016. Moshfegh found commercial success with her 2018 novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which follows an unnamed protagonist’s year-long experiment with sedatives and sleep in an attempt to escape the realities of her life. Both novels feature explicit descriptions of sexual violence and addiction.

Cultural Context: Disgust and Desire

Although disgust and desire may seem like diametrically opposed emotions, they are paradoxically connected, and this connection helps to explain the power of the stories in Homesick for Another World. Disgust is a negative physical and emotional reaction informed by both personal taste (like a child’s disgust for spinach) and cultural expectations (like the taboo against incest). Desire can be defined as a physical and emotional yearning informed by both personal preference (like a “sweet tooth”) and social expectations (like culturally-mandated beauty standards). As these definitions suggest, disgust and desire are both born from the tension between personal preference and social expectations. Objects of disgust and/or desire present a useful space for exploring the intricacies of human emotions.

Disgust and desire can emerge simultaneously or in close proximity, often blurring the lines between pleasure and repulsion. For Moshfegh, both disgust and desire are emotional reactions that lead to pronounced physical effects—whether nausea or arousal. Though desire does not mean only sexual desire, the connection is most obvious in the realm of human sexuality. For instance, certain fetishes or paraphilias may involve objects or acts that provoke disgust in others yet evoke intense desire in those who possess such preferences. Homesick For Another World features characters who are aroused by things that are often considered disgusting, especially feces and other bodily functions. Moshfegh’s treatment of these characters suggests that the line between disgust and desire is not only thin but also malleable, subject to change according to the subject’s circumstances and history.

Literary Context: Unlikable Characters

When literary critics make arguments about fictional characters, they generally focus on the character’s position within the story, how they grow and change, and how they reflect or challenge major ideas within the text as a whole. Historically, assessments of whether or not a character is a “good person” have not been included in literary analysis; however, as literary culture has expanded beyond professionals in the internet age, the question of “likable characters” has become more salient. In 2013, American author Claire Messud was asked whether she’d want to be “friends” with the protagonist of her novel The Woman Upstairs. Messud made the gendered dimension of this question clear when she dismissed it as ridiculous, arguing that men were not expected to write likable characters and that the most famous characters in English literature, like Hamlet, were unlikable.

Moshfegh’s characters are frequently described as unlikable, and the protagonists of the stories in Homesick For Another World are no exception. The collection is rooted in these so-called unlikable characters, who challenge readers to confront the complexities of human nature and explore the darker aspects of the human psyche. By presenting flawed and morally ambiguous narrators, Moshfegh delves into the complexities of the human condition, sparking discussions on themes such as redemption, empathy, and personal growth. Moreover, these characters’ flaws and unlikable qualities may expose societal norms, cultural biases, or power dynamics. Unlikable characters, especially narrators, challenge readers’ preconceived notions and prompt them to question their own biases and assumptions.

It is worth noting that Moshfegh has pushed back against this characterization of her protagonists, saying that she often identifies with her characters, like the narrator of her novel Eileen. The popularity of Moshfegh’s fiction—especially her 2018 novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation—suggests that audiences might also like these characters.