Death in Her Hands

As always Moshfegh's writing style is perfect and gorgeous and stunning all at the same time. It would be an understatement to say one should read the book for the poetic style itself. The way she describes plots is incredible. Although I loved the overall book there was something off about it in the plot which didn't quite make up like her other books. I found the horror element missing for some reason.The story revolves around just incident wherein our protagonist, Vesta finds a note in the way while walking her dog, Charlie, where she comes across a dead body of girl named Magda. The name is as stated in it. It further says - Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't the one who write the note.The protagonist is obsessed with the note and totally clueless of what she's upto. Instead of revealing the note to the authorities she decides making a story about Madga.As the story progresses, the reader is left wondering how reliable a narrator Vesta is, which parts of what she tells you are real, if any, and which are part of her narrative or the story she has invented in her head. No one's much aware of her, she has a fewer friends and less social life.There are not many characters in the book which is odd and weird, which in turn ofcourse is the style Moshfegh specialises in but the narrative again has the same problem with less opinions or just glimpse of opinions of other characters. I hardly remember any other from that of Charlie the dog in entire story which made it frustrating at a point. Although the writing style is all anyone can read the book for the plot has some major problems in the book.

There’s something about Moshfegh’s writings that draws me toward it and makes me want to keep reading it without taking a break. No wonder I finished reading this book in less than three days only. Like all her other protagonists, we meet a woman who has chosen a life of seclusion from other people with various existential questions popping up in her head. However, unlike her other younger characters, here we meet a curious woman who is 72 years old. Age does a lot to what and how the character can be like and certainly, that is reflective in Moshfegh’s sketch of Vesta Gul. With an age of experience to retrospect, we meet Vesta and her dog Charlie in the woods discovering a note of the death of someone named Magda. From then on, Vesta sets on a mission to find more about Madga, give her her hand, the justice, and the love which her life may not have given to her. The book not only explores womanhood but also makes an intelligent commentary on the purpose of a murder mystery novel. With Moshfegh’s dark humour, it almost feels like a satire on writing a murder mystery story; a story full of blame-game, doubts, suspicions, the thrill to find the person out who is guilty. Almost every time, it is the other that we are in search of in a murder mystery story. Moshfegh plays with that idea and weaves a thriller that will keep you wondering until the last page as to what will happen? Who is who? and other such questions that piques your curiosity as Vesta sets herself in solving Magda’s case. This was a much better book than her previous one, I have to say. I liked how likeable Vesta was which doesn’t happen in Moshfegh’s books since she draws up unlikeable characters. I felt close to Vesta. I loved the setting of the novel. Nothing would be perfect for a thriller than a secluded wintry town with little people and barely any idea of when days change from one to another. I cannot wait for Moshfegh to write more books. I hope she keeps experimenting with characters and their lives as she did in this one.

The unreliable narrator of Ottessa Moshfegh's third novel is seventy-two-year-old Vesta Gul, a widow who lives alone in the woods in a lakeside cabin. When walking her dog, Charlie, she finds a note on the ground which says: "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." However, there is no body to be found nor any evidence of violence in the nearby area, so Vesta decides that instead of contacting the local police she will keep the note and make her own investigations. And so begins a very strange and unsettling story where we see Vesta, a woman who was controlled and undermined by her late husband and suffering from past traumas of her own, set out on a journey to recreate in her mind what she thinks might have happened to Magda and how the young woman might have met her death. However, once Vesta has started on her journey and has conjured up a life and a whole personality for the dead woman, she (and the reader) begins to have trouble working out what is real and what is fabrication. And as the story unravels and we enter into the mind of a woman who has become disassociated from those around her, we become witness to her alienation, her paranoia and her mental disintegration.A clever and compelling story which captures the mind of a woman who has difficulty in differentiating fact from fiction and whose history is gradually revealed to the reader as she struggles to process what has happened to her - both in the present and in the past. Although I thought this was a compelling read and started and finished it in practically one sitting, I found it a rather troubling story and although darkly funny in places it was one that left me feeling rather unsettled - and the scene towards the end, involving an animal, was something I found very upsetting and although I can understand the author wanted something startling to demonstrate the unravelling of Vesta's mind, I feel sure she could have created something better - but obviously I can't discuss this further without revealing spoilers. So, in summary, a clever and thought-provoking story (and not a murder mystery as one might think by the blurb) but one that has left me feeling rather confused about how to rate it fairly by Amazon's star system - therefore I've given it three stars but I've changed my mind several times about the rating - whilst reading the book and even during the writing of this review - and may come back and change it once the story has had time to settle.3 Stars.

I've read everything Ottessa Moshfegh has written. I think her writing is original, closely observed and darkly humorous, and she can offer up some of the sharpest, most lucid sentences I've recently read in American prose. But not so with this novel. It has the feel of something rushed, a moderately interesting idea pounded and squeezed for everything it has to offer until in the end it is bound to disappoint. It follows a similar narrative arc to 'Eileen', but doesn't have the same power of character and page-turning energy. The characters in this one have a stock feel to them, and although that might be part of the overall novel's design I wanted them to be more. The writing has an unedited cloudiness about it that I was surprised to encounter in such an accomplished author.I persisted with this book only because I enjoyed her previous stuff, but if it was my first exposure to her work I may well have got bored and sacked it off. For me the Moshfegh ranking would go like this: 'Homesick for Another World', 'Eileen', 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation', 'Death in Her Hands' (the novella 'McGlue' I'd put in a special category all by itself because I think Ottessa was possessed by some alien when that came out of her - mindboggling). So, bear the ranking in mind when you consider this purchase, but by no means overlook the benefits of reading at least some of what she's written. I'm definitely still a fan.

This book wasn’t what I was expecting - and not in a good way. It was the ramblings of a woman who was slowly losing her mind in the woods over a note she found on a dog walk that implied a girl named Magda had been murdered. That’s it, that’s all. If you’re looking for a thriller or expect her to be actually solving a realcrime, don’t pick up this book.This style of book was not for me. I was hoping for a thriller crime solving book, and instead, I got the ramblings of a bitter old woman (Vesta) reviewing her boring life and her unhappy marriage after the death of her husband. All the while, she is making up what may have happened to this girl and then losing her mind over it.The only thing I liked about this book was the characterisation of Vesta. The fact that she basically looks down her nose at most of the inhabitants of her small town, hates fat people, and does a rather horrible thing at the end of the novel, made her a wholly unlikeable character and unreliable narrator - and I actually enjoyed that. I liked that she wasn’t a nice old lady. I wasn’t rooting for her or feeling sorry for her. I detested her and I think that was the point. In spite of the great characterisation, I hated the long winded rambling where very little happens. I don’t mind forays into the mundane but this was just boring as hell at some points and the story didn’t really progress. There was nothing to solve. This wasn’t about a murder, it was about her descent into madness - but that isn’t what the book is sold as. It’s a rambling stream of consciousness and not my cup of tea.

Where to start with Vesta, eh? She is a sort isn't she, I think she'd be described or even ascribe, as a wily old woman.She's sprightly for seventy odd, didn't like Walter too much. But wow, not sure how to describe this book but Vesta finds a note in the woods next to her secluded cabin in the woods, even though she has neighbours, but not neighbourly neighbours but the atmosphere was all engulfing. I raced through is in a day and a bit, after I'd started and finished The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven.If I could add infinity stars, I would. But it, borrow it but read it.

*spoiler alert*I was very excited for this book as it has been recommended by a lot of thriller/mystery readers but I must say I was utterly disappointed. Nothing really happens. Don't get me wrong it is well written but truly ... nothing happens . It's filled with descriptions and descriptions of the dead girl and what she would be like and who the suspects would be. She talks about that, her dog and her dead husband. That is it - personally bored me