‘A Dark And Winding Road’ by Ottessa Moshfegh

A Dark And Winding Road by Ottessa Moshfegh, 2013

The magic trick:

Starting with the story of a marriage before pivoting to the story of a brotherly relationship

This story is gross. It just is. The characters act in gross ways. They have grossly selfish expectations and points of view. It’s kind of a slimy read.

Anyway, it seems like it’s the story of a married couple. The husband resents his wife (maybe because she’s pregnant? maybe because he’s now expected to have a greater set of responsibilities as a soon-to-be father?), so he goes to his family’s cabin in the woods to make her appreciate him in his absence. Splendid guy, really.

But as the story goes on and we get different pieces of backstory – and surprise characters show up in the plot – it soon becomes clear this is really the story of two brothers. The husband is the responsible one compared to his older brother, and it’s clear that our husband hero acts the way he does more due to problems in the lifelong relationship with his brother than because of his marriage.

And that’s quite a trick on Moshfegh’s part.

The selection:

Once I’d gotten the fire roaring, I sat down and cursed myself for having forgotten to buy a corkscrew from the gas station, since late morning by the fire seemed like the perfect time to sip my wine. I swore aloud. The friend who had given me that bottle was an old college classmate. I’d slept with his girlfriend one weekend senior year while he was visiting his parents, and I never told him. His girlfriend’s name was Cindy and she was half Pakistani and liked poppers and farted in her sleep. She was the last girl I slept with before my wife. So that bottle to me meant more than good wine. There was no way I was sharing it with my wife. I considered driving back down to the gas station, but there was no guarantee they’d have a corkscrew. Plus I was too scared to leave the fire burning unattended. There was no fire extinguisher, and the plumbing was shot. Not being able to wash my hands was the only real drawback to the place. I relieved myself outdoors, watching the smoke tuft out of the metal chimney like a choo-choo train. Afterward I used sanitizing gel on my hands and sat in the armchair again.

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