Eileen the character is damaged, secretive, awkward, lonely and many other things. The voice that Moshfegh creates her with is strong and consistent. I loved the character (and hated her). Moshfegh is also brilliant at setting the scene: the disgusting house, the drunken father, the boys' prison, seedy small-town life in the 1960s. Her life and the place Eileen lives in is sad, engrossing and incredibly visual.
But Eileen the novel, didn't work quite as well. The action is crammed into the last 50 or so pages, and within it, Eileen the character often seemed to behave out of character for the sake of the plot.

Spoiler

She makes a plan in her head of what to do with Mrs Polk in about five seconds flat while Mrs Polk is wailing, Rebecca is shouting and a gun is being waved around. Still enamoured with Rebecca, Eileen goes home with Mrs Polk in the car, to collect her money and wait for Rebecca. But she doesn't bother to wait because some how she seems to know that Rebecca will never turn up. That isn't the Eileen I got to know through the first three quarters. That was a convenient plot device. Eileen would have waited.

The very end of the book however, brought it all back together again. A wonderful ending.
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