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A review by librovermo
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
5.0
This is it. This is the physical book I want to annotate. I can’t, because it’s a library book, and I’m honestly kind of devastated.
Anyway, our narrator is incredibly selfish, a horrible friend, and she doesn’t care about anyone around her. But she doesn’t seem to care about herself either. She’s self-destructive and makes no effort to take care of herself in even the simplest of ways. She’s not exactly a likeable character, and yet, I found myself liking her. Maybe even loving her. I don’t behave the way she does (I promise!) but I somehow understood her. And anyway, her friend Reva did sound kind of annoying.
Though a couple things might not have been 100% believable, the book felt like an incredibly honest memoir, and I enjoyed that aspect a whole lot. I found myself relating to some of the narrator’s thoughts and experiences in some abstract, some more concrete ways. She said some things I could have written myself and who knows, maybe that’s why I liked her as much as I did.
I love the way My Year of Rest and Relaxation feels like it’s about nothing and something at the same time. A young woman sleeps through a year of her life, so, yeah, there’s not a lot of action. But sometimes, she wakes up, and in a haze, she goes out for supplies, or to see her irresponsible therapist for prescription refills. She calls her horrible sometimes-boyfriend. Her friend drops by. She reflects on old memories. The between-sleep content provided a surprising amount of substance for a book about a woman who wants a year of nothingness.
I haven’t read any other reviews, but I’ve heard reception was kind of mixed on this book and I understand why, but I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone who doesn’t take issue with characters deemed unlikeable.
Anyway, our narrator is incredibly selfish, a horrible friend, and she doesn’t care about anyone around her. But she doesn’t seem to care about herself either. She’s self-destructive and makes no effort to take care of herself in even the simplest of ways. She’s not exactly a likeable character, and yet, I found myself liking her. Maybe even loving her. I don’t behave the way she does (I promise!) but I somehow understood her. And anyway, her friend Reva did sound kind of annoying.
Though a couple things might not have been 100% believable, the book felt like an incredibly honest memoir, and I enjoyed that aspect a whole lot. I found myself relating to some of the narrator’s thoughts and experiences in some abstract, some more concrete ways. She said some things I could have written myself and who knows, maybe that’s why I liked her as much as I did.
I love the way My Year of Rest and Relaxation feels like it’s about nothing and something at the same time. A young woman sleeps through a year of her life, so, yeah, there’s not a lot of action. But sometimes, she wakes up, and in a haze, she goes out for supplies, or to see her irresponsible therapist for prescription refills. She calls her horrible sometimes-boyfriend. Her friend drops by. She reflects on old memories. The between-sleep content provided a surprising amount of substance for a book about a woman who wants a year of nothingness.
I haven’t read any other reviews, but I’ve heard reception was kind of mixed on this book and I understand why, but I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone who doesn’t take issue with characters deemed unlikeable.