First-Person Fiction

The narrator in this story believes that they have a story to tell when there are red bugs found on the elm tree that grows in his yard, and his neighbor tells him that he needs to chop down the tree so that his own elm trees don’t get infested. This is an important issue […]

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This story is full of elements that should be discussed—the mirror scenes, the connections, time, generations—but it is the narrator that most intrigues me. He is an emotional man who feels the advancement of his years bearing down on him; this is in part due to his decreased mobility and lack of elation and anticipation […]

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The narrator, a 69-year-old man who teaches astronomy and biology at the local high school, is telling the story of how he learned to embrace life, even after death. This is shown through the conflict between him and Mr. Pike, his neighbor over their elm trees. The narrator’s elm tree is infested with bugs that […]

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The part that struck me the most was whenever the narrator, Dr. Xavia, was saying prayers in the morning. “Why are you punishing him, Padre? I asked. I never thought you had such a mean streak.” While I haven’t been to church since I was fourteen, (and it was a Methodist church which meant that they liked […]

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It took a while for me to understand the story, but it became clearer to me as I read. It’s a sad story and one that make me relate to it more than I thought I would. This story is about a man who is afraid of dying and not leaving any indication he was […]

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The narrator may very well been speaking or writing in this story. They certainly had an audience, which is expressed in the very first line of the story, “Let me tell you…” it said on page 1. It seemed as though the events regarding the pests in the elm was what set this story in […]

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One of the strongest components of Otessa Moshfegh’s “A Better Place” is how convincing it is. The reader is so drawn into the world she creates, it’s difficult to discern if the narrator is crazy or not. Initially, it’s easy to believe that nothing she’s saying is real because it’s so bizarre. The narrator just […]

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This short story was certainly a very interesting read and very light in comparison to what we have been reading recently. I enjoyed the careful thought and deliberation Ethan Canin put into each sentence. The overall story plot is quite simple, an older gentleman who is feeling the pains of age more than those around […]

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To say the least, I think this story was more strange and convoluted than the rest of Otessa Moshfegh’s stories combined. The point of view was very different as well in comparison to the narrators in all of her other stories as well. For one, the narrator in this story is a young child, who […]

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I’ll fully preface this post by saying that this story was entirely baffling to read, and I think it also goes without saying that it being strange to read was the point of it. The whole notion of the story was unsettling, kids having to kill, strange ideas of not being from this planet, and […]

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I believe that “A Better Place” is one of the best short stories within this collection. After reading all of the other stories of characters who are trapped in their own lives, it was exciting to see one of her characters trying to escape from theirs. “A Better Place” was filled with the aspects of […]

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Ottessa Moshfegh is a ground breaking writer. Her ability to create such deep characters and fill every scene leaves no stone unturned. “Nothing Ever Happens Here” follows along the life of a young man who left everything behind to become an actor in Hollywood. The story line does not seem adherently great, in fact it […]

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This post is going to be short because there’s so much happening in this story and I don’t know how to process it. Unlike the rest of the collection, this story holds a fantastical element that play a key role. We’re told time and time again that our main character and her brother are not […]

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Of the many things different in this story from the others—the present tense, a child narrator—one of them is the fairytale elements. There are several moments throughout the story that invokes the fairytale. On page 274, Urszula tells Waldemar “You look like a witch” when he places a blanket over his head. Urszula and Waldemar—a […]

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The lovely story of Miniature Man is set in a little mountain town in Spain and focuses on the reclusive Gregorio, a miniaturist whom no one believes will be successful. He has been building a miniature museum for 15 years, and even won the lottery during a past stay in England, but he used most […]

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The story was about a little girl, I believe, who thought that there is some place not on Earth and far from it that she was once on and wished to return to it. I believe the narrator was thinking throughout the story as opposed to writing or speaking it due to all the immediate […]

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This story gives us a look into the life of “Stephanie Reilly,” a surrogate president for a foreign ran company. Through out the story we see Stephanie slipping more and more into a hole of loneliness and despair. It is hinted at that She doesn’t have any close family and the only people she seems […]

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In the beginning of the story we had the impression that it was going to be a very depressed story. We see this person that is very harming to themselves and loves only death with no beliefs of a godly figure. But the narrator is the opposite: she is innocent and full of life. She’s […]

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Ottessa Moshfegh is an incredibly talented writer, but the stories she created are very far from being wonderful to read. Each narrator of her stories had their own problems going on in life, and these problems were definitely not small. However, the world’s Moshfegh created around each character were a pleasure to read, at least […]

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In “The Surrogate,” the narrator— under the alias Stephanie Reilly— works for a family as a surrogate vice president to negate any racism the real vice president, Lao Ting, might experience if he went to the meetings she attended instead. Stephanie, looking back on her time working there, clearly believes the story is simply about […]

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