14 rather forgettable stories by the author whose magnificent book McGlue is seeming more and more like the fluke. I respect that Moshfegh is a woman who did what the mass market demands to make it as a writer, but not that she can write a masterpiece like McGlue and then turn around to show such amateur writing.

The stories are very readable, but to me that’s not a compliment. I’d much rather read timeless, contemporary human portraits than mass market stories that are strange and shocking only to (I owe this upcoming phrasing to a Goodreads review for another book) people who find maggots disgusting for what maggots do.

June 2023 has been the month of disappointing short stories for me. I’m sad to report Moshfegh’s stories (none of which has an ending that manages to land — even those that were so good in the beginning) have taken their place among those collections. These stories felt like a waste of time.