Homesick for Another World

Mental health conditions are a recurring motif in Homesick For Another World: Many of the protagonists of the stories in the collection deal with mental health conditions or live in close proximity to people who do. When characters experience delusions, the stories take these delusions seriously, presenting them as reality. This careful, intentional treatment of their mental health suggests that these symptoms should be recognized as a part of modern life, rather than dismissed or hidden away.

The narrator of “The Weirdos” is in a relationship with a man who experiences delusions. On their first date, he tells her that, “looking into a crystal ball, he’d just read a private message from God in the silvery vortex of [her] left pupil” (53). The narrator casually dismisses this, and gradually learns to accept his delusions as a fact of life, as when she agrees to shoot the birds that he believes “stare […] into [their] souls” (55). Although the narrator hates her boyfriend, she grows to accept his delusions and ultimately decides not to leave him. The story implies that she stays with him because, as the landlord of her building, he offers her housing security. Moshfegh presents mental health conditions and housing insecurity as realities that cannot be ignored.