My Year of Rest and Relaxation: A Novel
The New York Times Bestseller • New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Vice, Bustle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, and The AV Club
“One of the most compelling protagonists modern fiction has offered in years: a loopy, quietly furious pillhead whose Ambien ramblings and Xanaxed b*tcheries somehow wend their way through sad and funny and strange toward something genuinely profound.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Darkly hilarious . . . [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.” —Vogue
“Ottessa Moshfegh is easily the most interesting contemporary American writer on the subject of being alive when being alive feels terrible.” —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.
“One of the most compelling protagonists modern fiction has offered in years: a loopy, quietly furious pillhead whose Ambien ramblings and Xanaxed b*tcheries somehow wend their way through sad and funny and strange toward something genuinely profound.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Darkly hilarious . . . [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.” —Vogue
“Ottessa Moshfegh is easily the most interesting contemporary American writer on the subject of being alive when being alive feels terrible.” —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.
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Community Reviews
That...was...an adventure.
I think I'm still processing, but I did WANT to finish it. It's a solid 3.5 stars & leaning towards 4.
But I'm still... ... ...
I think I'm still processing, but I did WANT to finish it. It's a solid 3.5 stars & leaning towards 4.
But I'm still... ... ...
“The speed of time varied, fast or slow, depending on the depth of my sleep. My favorite days were the ones that barely registered.”
A young woman, disillusioned and desensitized, pursues a break from life. A mental health day or 365... a deep never-ending sleep.
She is pretty, privileged, and insufferable. She is self-absorbed and incapable of seeing beyond her own needs. She hates everything and everyone.
Life is meaningless and a waste of time.
"I think I have insomnia. That's my main issue."
"You're probably addicted to caffeine too. Am I right?"
"I don't know."
"You better keep drinking it. If you quit now, you'll just go crazy. Real insomniacs suffer hallucinations and lost time and usually have poor memory. It can make life very confusing. Does that sound like you?"
"Sometimes, I feel dead," I told her. "And I hate everybody. Does that count?"
"Oh, that counts. That certainly counts."
In sharp contrast to The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Moshfegh offers an absurd take on a self-imposed Rest Cure, inattentive therapy and complicated relationships.
I really enjoyed the first 3rd of the book. The middle was a little slow and repetitive, but it aligned with what the main character was experiencing, which makes the slow pace forgivable for me. However, the end was so odd, as if the author was provided a prompt that stated “write a story based on [spoiler image]” and the rest of the book expanded from there and this made the whole thing feel forced to fit the final part of the story. This pushed it from 4 stars to 3.
Overall, it was still an enjoyable read. It was engaging for the most part and it made me ponder the realities of depression (though the main character was extremely privileged and presented an unrealistic ability to not need to work while coping with mental illness).
Overall, it was still an enjoyable read. It was engaging for the most part and it made me ponder the realities of depression (though the main character was extremely privileged and presented an unrealistic ability to not need to work while coping with mental illness).
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