Wow so having a hard time collecting my thoughts about this one. This was such a departure from the only other Moshfegh book I've read - Death in Her Hands. This book was like a horrible car crash that you can't look away from.

Set in a fictional, medieval European fiefdom, this follows several characters at odds with God, their lord, paganism, and their various inner moral struggles. This book doesn't hold back from being as disgusting as possible - CW for gore, rape, feces, vomit, cannibalism, pedophilia, murder, etc etc. At the same time, I was completely absorbed and couldn't put it down.

I'll have to think about this one more and write up a full review. ( )

My first impression of Lapvona was that it is written like a Bosch painting. My mental picture of the characters in the grubby little medieval town consisted of figures that look like owl-headed sheep beasts, deformed men with odd weapons, piglet faced humans dressed in fine clothing, strange sexual proclivities carried out by uncaring overlords, and so on.

Their world is corrupt, dirty, impoverished and awful. Malnutrition runs rampant. One character has an eating disorder amid a famine caused by drought. The peasants eat dirt and drink contaminated water. She lives at the lord's house and has food, but limits herself to one leaf of cabbage to serve God.

Heinous crimes are commonplace. People punish themselves through flagellation and various other means of self-abuse.

If the priestly class weren't there to prop up the lordly class, the peasant class would ask more questions and be less stupid. The pampered, doltish lords rely upon fear for power, and for that they require the priest to instill fear of the afterlife.

Moshfegh takes them all to the stockade and gives them a good spanking. I hope we get that GOT series set in Flea Bottom and she write the scripts. ( )

The literary equivalent of a Bosch painting: a lot of wallowing in the grotesque, giving an overall impression of a topsy turvy world where everything is corrupt and hopeless. In style, content, setting, it feels more like an allegory than a novel.
https://donut-donut.dreamwidth.org/865612.html ( )

Absolutely weird, incredibly vile, and entertaining as hell.

I can't wait to read scathing reviews about how gross and twisted Moshfegh is. I'm also happy to report that this is so much better than Death in Her Hands... thank god. ( )

it's medieval slice of life, and life is terrible ( )