My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

By Ottessa Moshfegh

  • Release Date: 2018-07-10
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 1,318 Ratings

Description

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.

Reviews

  • strange

    4
    By rora🎆
    a strange book for women who are truly ill, but honestly this book was a good read and really fun… plus i have an idea now
  • I liked it

    4
    By AngryByrddd
    Maybe more because of the writing than the plot, but I did like it. Mostly because it felt very real. I feel like these characters exist IRL, which is why it’s sad. But also reassuring, since I’m nothing like them. Their friendship was depressing and I feel this is common. Basically, this is the opposite of what I want in life. So, if you look at it like that, it makes you feel better!
  • Great read

    5
    By CassieAlsoCass
    Real page turner, just the last few chapters on their own make the whole book a great read. Main protagonist is a wee bit annoying sometimes, but I mostly enjoyed being inside her head.
  • This is a bad book

    5
    By Curtaloo
    This is a bad book.
  • Good

    5
    By minisculeAvatar
    Thought provoking never boring good read. That’s it. Left feeling better not doing nothing. I rest now
  • pretty good

    4
    By facialwartz
    I really enjoyed it. I took off a star bc the ending felt a little rushed
  • This type of self care is not a virtue. Not sure what author is trying to elevate.

    2
    By Tooley426
    I know that the narrator is an anti-hero, but there’s nothing more to much of this book that a listing of strong drugs and pill popping and worthless exchanges with a quack psychiatrist that apparently gets to keep on abusing her power. If the narrator wants to off herself, go ahead and do it. There’s no virtue in this version of self care- medicating yourself silly. And then the ending which we see coming is cruel and without sufficient care or critique for the narrator wasting away a year drugged out, self harming, and harming others. There’s nothing redemptive about this.
  • Okay

    3
    By Shelby Luhoo
    I thought it was an easy read, kept me reading although tiresome and reparative. The meaning was tied together in the end and although the character development took too long I understood the intention. Wished it was more exciting but obviously that wasn’t the point. Still a simple and valuable read, I guess!
  • soso

    3
    By K3nz0000
    I can relate to her alot however it was pretty boring on real peak just steady misery. the ending was disappointing i wish she would elaborate on how she was feeling and where her life plans went on from there just a little
  • Small

    1
    By Thatyungchillboy
    Another pretentious showcase of the following word combination: “I’m a new yorker”