Much fuss has been made about the fact Ottessa Moshfegh wrote her brilliant breakthrough novel Eileen in 90 days using a rudimentary how-to guide that she picked up in a bookstore. The book would end up winning the Pen/Hemingway Award in 2016 and was shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Books Critics Circle Award.
The revelation of Eileen’s origins came as an affront to some readers. “People thought I had somehow cheated,” Moshfegh, 41, says now of the reaction. “As if I hadn’t been working my whole life to write Eileen.” Those same people will likewise be irked to learn that Moshfegh’s best-selling 90-day novel has now been adapted for the screen – and it’s a sumptuous film starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie. “I mean, if it’s so easy then let others try it – go pick up the manual!” laughs Luke Goebel, Moshfegh’s husband, a fellow writer with whom she co-wrote the film’s screenplay.
