My Year of Rest and Relaxation

A witty look into what depression coupled with privilege might look like. In parts this book reminded me of Catcher in the Rye, which definitely means it has potential to be a new classic.

it's okay to rot a little bit if you need to

What a strange story.

The more I think about it, the more I think I liked it, so I'll bump it up a star. It reminds me of something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe Chuck Palahniuk? Sort of?

A low key, bizarre story that I couldn't stop reading, even though it made me feel lethargic. The weird therapist–my favorite. Now back to The Pisces...

9/10
A true-blue masterpiece. Engrossing, to the point that I felt a kinship with the unnamed protagonist, and nihilistic to the fact that I thought that Nietzsche developed his theory of anti-nihilism precisely because he anticipated such a piece of media being created.
The TL;DR version is that a woman convinces herself that she needs a year off - away from work, all responsibilities, and relationships. To that extent, she quits her job, stops talking to the little people she is already talking to, and stops focusing at all on anything other than the bare minimum to get by. Between her progressively deranged ramblings, her self-described best friend (who she simultaneously loves and hates) pops in to supply her with news from the outside world (and her own).
If that sounds like a dreary ride, I can assure you it's not. The protagonist's biting inner monologue is every bit as uncomfortable as it is darkly funny; her recollections of her childhood are part victimization and part acceptance to the point of hilarity, and every once in a while, the protagonist also offers some solemn ponderings on the state of the world which stops you in your tracks. My only qualm with the novel lies in the last quarter, which is pretty predictable but is still entirely absorbing.
Overall, My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a fantastic collection of musings on the vagaries of consumerism and late-stage capitalism, with some plot sprinkled on as garnishing.

blech

in all seriousness, an interesting concept but such poor execution. maybe because i wanted to be able to relate some of my own experiences, but reading pages upon pages of pill cocktails held no water for me; neither heartfelt nor convincing for a topic that deserves to be written with more attention.

Last year I learned about Auden's Five Verdicts when you are evaluating a book. When I finished this for book club, I immediately thought that one of those verdicts would apply here: I can see that this is good, but I don't like it. This book challenged me. It is more than just a story, a story that is so improbable that I was forced to look for the message in it. (worth noting that I love book club for exactly this reason - I read and try to finish books I would otherwise not pick up or possibly finish). This author is clearly a gifted writer. This book is very very well written. I just had a hard time reading it. I wonder if it is because we are in such an uncertain and dark time with Coronavirus quarantines and concerns and over 60,000 dead Americans in a short time that this was hard to read. I've found myself searching for fluffy, easy, hopeful books over the past month. Having said that, I feel like this book is so good at describing a person who just wants to pull the covers over their head and come out when things are better. If the author is trying to paint a picture of a time before social media and smartphones had taken over our society, of a person so privileged they forget the meaning and value in things and other people, then I think she succeeded. A harsh light is shone on the characters and displays the real people they are, “worts and all” as the saying goes. There are certainly no filters and no public faces elaborated on here. I will likely read more from this author, but probably not until the reality around me looks a bit brighter.

I'm stuck in a weird kind of limbo with this book. I liked it a lot but I have no idea why. I hated every character in it. I seethed at their conduct. I despised the depiction of the art world. At one point I had to close the book to shout at my ceiling. But other than that I didn't want to put it down, and it's been on my mind often since I finished it.

This is an excruciatingly modern book, reflecting the age of the privileged and entitled back to us in painful clarity, and Ottessa Moshfegh captures it all with such ease.

4.5 reluctantly glowing stars.

Unpleasant but fascinating and witty in its own way. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I'm glad I read it. Hard to summarize my feelings about this.

Truly pushing the bounds of unlikeable characters. The last page is stunning.

out of all the moshfegh's i've read, I enjoyed (?) this one the most but it's still just, meh. did it help to pull me out of my reading slump? yes, but at what cost?

also, anyone claiming this as a “that girl” book has completely lost their mind. it's literally like saying “omg I aspire to have such horrible anxiety and depression because my parent's neglected me as a child and as a result I have no self confidence, can't form healthy relationships, can't feel an emblem of empathy for others and literally do not want to exist in reality because I have nothing to look forward to in life so what's the purpose of living?”...but go off ig

So-so on this one. A really fun premise and some really yummy awfulness in the first half that kinda flattened out in the second as the author needed to figure out some kind of plot. The narrator's weird psychiatrist Dr. Tuttle is delightful and a highlight of the book. Reva is perfectly drawn as a significant/insignificant side character for the narrator. The semi-comatose trip to Reva's family home was great. I wish some inner (or outer) development in the two major conflicts for the narrator - grieving her troubled relationship with her dead parents, and reconciling her terrible years-long relationship with Trevor - were a larger factor in explaining *why* she is able to come out of her Infermiterol bender in a better place, instead of the thinly-wrought blackout relationship with Ping Xi and then magically being okay selling her parent's house and going outside to watch dogs on a park bench. Dunno, seemed kinda convenient that the first 8 months or whatever saw zero character growth and the last stunt was perfectly successful. I really liked how it was set just-enough before September 11, 2001 that you wondered the whole book if that event would be included or not. Overall it was a pretty fun doomer/goblin-mode read.

I had thought this would be better than it was. The storyline is very simple, almost boring yet the author keeps it interesting. Wasn't enthralled by the book as a whole though

Very interesting depiction of a protagonist, whom the world would deem as having everything - money, beauty, hip job, condo on the east side. Yet, internally, her world is falling apart, so much so, that she wants to take a year off to sleep. This novel explores how far one would go to get their life back on track or a total reset - with some exceptions.

P.S. The therapist leaves so much to be desired. That's all I will say as not to spoil it

3/5 at a stretch, was kinda underwhelmed by this one (although I did enjoy the last 100 pages)

Started out really good and horrifyingly relatable, but then lost me completely.

It captures the feeling of depression well but never goes anywhere with it and leaves you with a rushed and flat ending. Really fun and satirical though, I didn't regret reading it!

I loved the way it was written though, I will definitely read more Otessa Moshfegh.

The literary equivalent of a TikTok micro-aesthetic...and just about as essential.

Just wow....wow. This book is a very bold and blunt read. It's not a conservative book but a chaotic one. If I consider the book Bunny as Chaotic neutral, this book would be Chaotic Evil. It was a roller coaster of emotions from many “WTF” moments to “side eye *blinks” moments. The author did not hold back and really wrote this book as realistic and has HBO vibes.

This book is not for the faint-hearted or innocent readers.

Trigger warnings: Drugs, psychotic, mental health, depression, Mental Health drugs 3-day blackouts, addiction, severe insomnia, parents dying, death, mention of 9/11, and eating disorder.

Reva has such a Cancer Zodiac energy. She was caring and loved the narrator. Also, the narrator does not have a name. At the same time, Reva had issues with body image and death in the family. Trevor sucks by the way.

This was a quick and easy read. Took me about 3 hours to finish it since it was a page-turner. If you want/need a book to feel something, this book is for you.

Given the hype, I was expecting to dislike this.

I didn't.

The protagonist is privileged, inhuman, simultaneously vapid and profound, fake and the realest. A complete basket case.

The writer is incredibly skilled in controlling her naked prose and cut it as close to where it would bleed as possible.
(At one point, she describes the movements of a character's hands as they mimic the box in which their mother's ashes are sitting, unironically, as “voguing”).

The book doesn't really want to teach you anything. And that's okay.
That's honest.

5 out 5 stars. As unethical and slightly painful as it feels to describe this book as “good”, it's impossible not to.

4.5 stars!!!

Took me a while to read because it was a little slow/repetitive in the middle. But, I still really liked it!! I've never hated a main character more.

Guess I'm going to have to officially change my stance that I don't like books with unlikeable characters!

This book was so boring and so pointless. I hated how depressed and disappointing out character was. It made it seem like the main character hated her life to where she found no point but sleep. Her friend was also a joke and not in any way helpful. Don't even get me started on her therapist who is suppose to be helping her. I really hated the on and off relationship she had with Trevor. I am going to give this book zero stars because I would have hated it even if I finished it.

I can see why people would like this book, but it is not for me. The character was so selfish and flawed and I was bored throughout it. It is unique though, and it is a great depiction of severe depression and withdrawing from the world. I was most interested in her family life. She didn't seem to have any personality, but I guess that can be attributed to the fact she doesn't want to give any shits.

I found myself thinking about this book weeks after reading it for it to actually sit with me. 

I kind of figured out why I am less sympathetic about this character than anyone in her situation and I realize maybe that was the point. Yes, she is unlikeable. But I found a lot of things she says I kind of agree with but would probably not say out loud myself. Because people would think I'm an asshole.

Right off the bat, I would have already guessed the narrator has depression. It seems obvious. But the way the book is written, you find very little reason to sympathize with her because she has all this privilege. She's a beautiful, wealthy white woman. It would seem like there is very little for her to be depressed about. Sure, her parents died but she admits herself that she never really had a loving relationship with them. She quit her job, but she admits she has been long disillusioned with the industry she works in. It seems to me that even the narrator herself is unable to admit to herself that she is miserable and she's incredibly self aware of her own privilege and perhaps that's why she couldn't admit to herself her own problems. She does a lot of this deflection throughout the book. And so her year of rest and relaxation was another way for her to divert herself from her problems. Because she has no way of facing them if she doesn't acknowledge them.

Being unable to admit to yourself or anyone that you are going through a depression is hard enough without people reminding you of what you should be grateful for. And especially with the time period this was set on, it must have been so isolating to feel like you're the only miser in the room. 

The ending was less about her character development or her year of rest and relaxation actually working for her. It was more like she woke up to a new world where it wouldn't be so out of place to feel morose or depressed a little. The bubble has popped for much of the people around her.

Sometimes, it takes a lot of effort for us to admit how miserable we actually feel.