My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Synopsis

“A shocking, hilarious and strangely tender novel about a young woman’s experiment in narcotic hibernation, aided and abetted by one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature. Our narrator has many of the advantages of life, on the surface. Young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, she lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. But there is a vacuum at the heart of things, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents in college, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her alleged best friend. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?”

-Synopsis from Goodreads

Review

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh came to me highly recommended. I read Eileen last year and was already familiar with Moshfegh’s writing style, which is decidedly not for everyone. That’s pretty much the same with My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

I wouldn’t even know where to begin with the list of potential triggers for this book because there are many, so be warned. But the writing is so excellent and that’s what I most enjoyed about this book. There isn’t a whole lot of action, not much of a plot, and only one character really to focus on. Some parts of this book made me laugh out loud, and others were somber and moving. At no point while reading this book was I bored.

I would like to refer anyone interested in reading an in-depth analysis of this book to Claire Fallon’s Huffington Post article, which I discovered after reading the book. Her analysis is exceptionally well-written and provides many insights worth considering.

This one got five stars from me on Goodreads. I’d give it more if I could! I can’t wait to see what Ottessa Moshfegh comes up with next.