59 pages • 1 hour read
Homesick for Another World
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Social Isolation
Many of the stories that comprise Homesick for Another World feature characters who feel disconnected from their society. These individuals find themselves isolated in various ways, whether physically, emotionally, or psychologically. Throughout the collection, Moshfegh’s exploration of the various types and effects of isolation suggests that a lack of meaningful connections can lead to a loss of humanity. The dangers of social isolation are seen most clearly in “Mr. Wu” and “Slumming.”
“Mr. Wu” takes place in a crowded, dirty city. Despite the density of the city—described from Mr. Wu’s claustrophobic perspective as “barbershops and brothels and pharmacies and little clothing stores and cigarette shops” (17)—Mr. Wu struggles to find meaningful connections with women. Although Mr. Wu and the unnamed arcade worker he’s obsessed with have lived in the same crowded town for some time, and although he speaks to her at the computer arcade every day, “the woman ignored Mr. Wu when they passed each other on the busy road” (18). Because their only communication happens within the commercial context of the computer arcade, Mr. Wu cannot bring himself to ask her out directly. Instead, he schemes to find her number and sends her an insulting text message; these anti-social behaviors demonstrate the depth of his isolation. The fact that Mr. Wu immediately begins to panic when the woman agrees to meet him suggests that he may not even be able to make the connection he believes he wants. Mr. Wu is so isolated from human contact that he considers it a success when the woman ultimately rejects him. The story suggests that social isolation in the short-term may result in an inability to form meaningful connections in the long-term.
The unnamed narrator of “Slumming” actively seeks out isolation in the town of Alna, which is a five-hour drive from the city where she lives. This physical isolation is enhanced by the narrator’s staunch refusal to socialize with the locals: “I didn’t want to have to talk to them, get to know them, or hear their stories” (109). During her summers in Alna, the narrator’s only contacts are her property manager, Clark, and the “zombies” she buys drugs from three times a week. Although the narrator believes that her summers in Alna can “clean [her] dirty city soul” (119), the story suggests that her isolation from the people of Alna makes her a less caring person. Although she visits the bus depot to buy drugs three times a week, the narrator dismissively refers to the people who sell to her as “ghost faces smeared with Alna’s dirt” (115). By denying the humanity of these “zombies,” the narrator seeks to differentiate herself from the people in her community who support her drug addiction; however, the dehumanizing language inadvertently highlights her own lack of humanity. She cannot see her own problems reflected in the lives of the people she criticizes. The story’s ending also suggests that this lack of community can have deadly consequences. It’s implied the narrator’s inaction when she notices the pregnant girl’s bleeding endangered the girl or her unborn baby.
Ultimately, the stories in this collection suggest that social isolation is a serious problem for people living in the 21st century. Moshfegh does not offer a solution to this problem, but rather demonstrates the various effects it can have on different types of people.
Life Under Capitalism
Many of the stories in Homesick for Another World critique modern capitalism by demonstrating the pernicious psychological effects of a world that revolves around money. Moshfegh’s protagonists struggle to make money, save money, and allocate funds appropriately, and her stories suggest that this is a visceral, daily struggle. In “Malibu” and “Dancing in the Moonlight,” financial anxieties create a sense of claustrophobia, suggesting there is no escape from the demands of capitalism.
“Malibu” is powered by an underlying current of financial anxiety. The story begins with the narrator describing how he falsifies documents for unemployment benefits and ends with his uncle’s misogynistic warning that all women care about is money. Throughout, the narrator’s financial anxieties define his relationships. The narrator’s relationship with his uncle is based on the uncle’s willingness to give him money: The narrator admits that “I only ever called him out of desperation” (38). When the uncle tells the narrator that he will be leaving him everything in his will, the narrator’s reaction is to immediately ask for an advance. Similarly, when the narrator secures a date with Terri, he imagines spending her money: “Maybe we could go to a casino together. Maybe we could find an all-you-can-eat buffet. She said she had money, after all” (46). The narrator’s bulimia acts as a counter to this all-consuming financial anxiety. Although the narrator cannot control his financial situation, he can control exactly how much he consumes, and purge everything he considers to be excessive. The story ultimately suggests that the demands of capitalism can lead to feelings of powerlessness, which can, in turn, result in self-harm. That the narrator later forces his bulimic behaviors on Terri demonstrates the potential for this harm to multiply as it spreads.
Nick, the narrator of “Dancing in the Moonlight” is in an even more precarious financial position, having accumulated five figures of credit card debt while working on a part-time salary. Nick’s particular vice is shopping for clothes, and the discrepancy between his appearance and his living situation is startling. Although he lives in an eight-by-eight room in a flophouse with “communal bathrooms full of silverfish and a shared kitchen full of mice” (224), Nick shops online for luxuries like “fur-lined deerskin gloves at Modo and a custom-ordered cashmere hat from an atelier in Tokyo” (226). The juxtaposition of the vermin and Nick’s luxurious items in such a small space creates a claustrophobic sense that nothing is where it should be. Nick’s obsession with maintaining the appearance of financial success has led him to a nearly unlivable housing situation.
In these stories and others in the collection, the demands of capitalism create a sense of claustrophobia: financial anxiety becomes all-consuming even as the pressure to buy fills up our homes. The stories suggest that, in the modern world, financial stability is directly tied to mental health.
Sexual Exploration and Freedom
Many of the stories in Homesick for Another World contain explicit depictions of sexual activity: Moshfegh’s descriptions of human sexuality suggest that sexual exploration is a liberating journey. In “The Beach Boy” and “A Dark and Winding Road,” in particular, sexual exploration beyond heteronormative expectations has a dramatic impact on the lives of the narrators.
The protagonist of “The Beach Boy” lives an exemplary upper-class life anchored in an exemplary marriage. After nearly three decades of marriage, John maintains a seemingly healthy sex life with his wife Marcia. The fact that Moshfegh first introduces her protagonist as part of a pair, one of three couples—“Marty and Barbara, Jerry and Maureen, and John and Marcia”—demonstrates the importance of this marriage to John’s identity. After Marcia’s death, John is unmoored: “[H]e felt as he did when he was gassed at the dentist’s office—disoriented, befuddled” (171). When John finds what he believes is evidence of Marcia’s infidelity with a male sex worker on their beach vacation, he takes it as an “invitation” (178) to explore his own sexuality. Although John frames his determination to engage the sex worker as a kind of “revenge” (180), the story suggests that this is only an excuse for John to explore. For John, having sex with a male sex worker—breaking his own heteronormative expectations—is “the strange thing that gave his life meaning at last” (180). Although he is ultimately unsuccessful, the attempt to explore his sexuality is enough to steady John’s grief; by the end of the story, he has returned to the weekly lunches with his friends. John’s exploration beyond heteronormative expectations has allowed him to feel more at ease in his life after the trauma of his wife’s death.
The narrator of “A Dark and Winding Road” similarly finds freedom in sexual exploration. Charles understands his identity in opposition to his brother. Where MJ is animalistic and incurious, Charles is refined and intellectual. This dichotomy is central to Charles’ understanding of his own identity. However, when MJ’s girlfriend Michelle appears at the cabin where Charles is staying, he elides the differences between them, and pretends to be MJ’s lover. As he smokes a cigarette, he begins mimicking the way he thinks a gay man would behave “sucking my cheeks in, then flinging my arm out, hyperextending the elbow was I exhaled to the side” (82). Playing this character makes Charles feel “very clever, very bold” (84), and he ultimately gives into the fantasy, allowing Michelle to penetrate him with a dildo. In the final line of the story, Charles says that being penetrated is “disgusting—just as I’d always hoped it to be” (87). This startling ending suggests that Charles has always had a desire for sexual expression beyond heteronormativity. The fact that the story takes place in a remote cabin, far from Charles’s daily life, speaks to the difficulty of acting on these desires freely in a heteronormative society.
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