My Year of Rest and Relaxation

It's been a really long time since I've finished a book and had to just sit there holding it and looking out the window like okay... wow, now what?

I generally don't like the overuse of the term “altered my brain chemistry” but right now I can't really find any other words to encompass my reaction to this. I have so much to say and unpack and rave about but I also would like to just hold onto all the information I have on this book and just lie down with it like a comfort blanket and go to sleep.

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.

5/5

This felt like Catcher in the Rye mixed with The Bell Jar plus a sprinkle of Lady Bird. In so many instances I felt like I could connect with the main character (especially with where I am currently in life) and I think that's why I liked it so much. I can understand why people might not like it considering there's not much action or real plot going on but since I felt personally connected to it, I enjoyed it a lot.

original rating: 4.25 ⭐
Recently I was craving Moshfegh's writing, especially after I read Eileen a few months ago, and absolutely devoured it. So I decided to reread My Year of Rest and Relaxation!
I loved it even more than the first time. This novel is about a pretty young woman who wants to take a year of rest. And she will sleep for that year by taking heavy sleeping drugs. Ottessa's masterpiece is a slice of life, low plot story of a girl on her journey to “self-care”. Moshfegh's writing is hypnotic and beautiful. She makes me cackle reading this unnamed character's expedition. Another 5 Star read from this author!
new rating: 5 ⭐

2,5*
I don't really know what to make of this book. It was kind of shallow and repetitive. The reviews say it's funny - I have no idea where.
The only interesting part was when the protagonist started doing things during her blackout, I thought that would also lead somewhere but nope. And the backstory into her miserable childhood and parents was also intriguing.
Didn't really get the ending either. Dunno, maybe just not a book for me. So far I've read 2 contemporary super popular books and I didn't like either

Well this book is really somewhat hard to write  a properly worded rewiev about. I mean there is just so many thoughts. I can start with the basic stuff.

The therapist, OMG how much I just dislike this therapist. It is just the most horrible and annoying thing ever. How she just does not seem to understand jack shot.I mean she does but it almost seems like she is just totally incompetant in everything she does.
The main caracther I do kinda like. I enjoy her general vibe. She seems relateble and I can easily understand why she does alot of the stuff she does. I am not a fan of how she seems to just be so god damn lazy and just plain out lie her way out of situations. I understand she is struggeling and stuff but the book seems to make it that being ill is an exuse for being a total dick. There is always some sort of understanding but at times this book crosses that line and well so that.
I have to say that leaving the main caracther unamed does give the effect that we can add it almost to everyone we know. It does it give it some sort of effect that makes it feel closer.

In general I did not like this book a lot but it also was not horrble.

What the fuck? Like how did I read this entire book... nothing happened but... everything happened. I don't know how I feel yet.

I knew it was accumulating to the twin towers and I knew when she said that Trevor and Reva worked there that 911 had to be an important component of the story. when she starts sleeping consistently blacking out I knew it would be a few months before 911 but the buildup was insane...

Few days later. I feel the same, but more sad for her. I feel like there may have been no absolution for the whole time. Even with the ending.

3.4

It is five months into the year, and I am finishing my first book of 2024. I have taken an extended vacation from reading. Well, less a vacation, and more a tailspin into sustained but variable crisis, wherein I reserve reading for my visits to the depressive hospitalizations. The manic ones tend to not leave much room for literature. Against the Day and Earthlings were exceptional experiences, I savored both, perfect novels, but upon discharge, I did not re-engage my longstanding love for reading, because life proved consistently to overwhelm. But here I am, sitting in a crisis center, having just finished this book, and about to read Smoke and Mirrors by Gaiman, with my return to University to finish an English Literature degree three years abandoned impending, and I think I have finally struck it, the passion, the fervor, for literature. I am tumbling headlong after a long dormancy, a long but fitful sleep, into embracing words as my future, the future for which I have pined but which I have avoided for two decades. Thank you, Ottessa, for helping me wake up.

The main character has a year of rest and relaxation - by bingeing on pills that let her sleep for days at a time, only waking up to eat and watch TV.

Looking at the reviews, it seems like this book is one you either love or hate, depending on whether you have sympathy for the main character or not. She's kind of a terrible person but at the same time I enjoyed her as a character. I'm not about to binge on pills but I can sort of relate - sometimes I just want to play videos games alone all day and not have to think about doing anything else (definitely not for an entire year though!).

This was a weird delight. Our heroine is rich and pretty, petty and anti-social. Sick and tired of the world, so she wants to reinvent herself by sleeping as much as possible, with the help of as many pills as her quirky unethical psychiatrist is willing to prescribe. She downs various combinations of sleeping and knockout pills that put her under for days at a time. She lives in a constant daze, between endless naps, watching VHS tapes on loop. Her only contact with the outside world are trips to the neighbourhood bodega, and that one persistently annoying friend who continues to stop by. Around 2/3 in, when her minimalist lazy lifestyle is established, and her dysfunctional upbringing was explored, the book felt a bit unsure about where to go next. But then it suddenly energised again, and I loved everything about her new stricter sleeping regime, the experimental and artsy nature of it, and especially the ultimate outcome. Moshfegh managed to hit a wonderfully sharp and cruel tone, in describing this seemingly vapid posh character, while also giving her a lot of sympathy and tenderness. This might be one of those books that keeps resonating within, after you've finished. I already like it more, the more I think about it. It's hitting this topical itch, of trying to find ways to be more mindful and positive towards this world. And there's just something very alluring about the concept of hibernation. Here it's part cry for help, but also a smart prescient self-preservation move. Which is empowering. Also, it was definitely interesting to read this in parallel with Michael Pollan's [b: How to Change Your Mind 36613747 How to Change Your Mind What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence Michael Pollan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545030338l/36613747.SY75.jpg 58370652], considering the experience she had on her final sleep, and how it ultimately transformed her.