A review by lauren_elizabeth
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love a good novel about the alienation and cruelty of the bourgeoisie. The narrator has interesting quirks: her habit of drinking two coffees at a time, her being driven purely by appetite and bodily instinct, conscience and morality always secondary, and her intense parasocial relationship with Whoopi Goldberg, for example.

I particularly find Moshfegh’s treatment of technology and film, and the narrator’s attachment to her VCR, interesting.

The narrator’s increasing sense of unreality parallels her growing conceptualisation of her life and experiences through a filmic lens; she imagines montages, flashbacks, smash and jump cuts to narrate herself. Her VCR becomes a hyperreality for her to vicariously live through, while neglecting all moral responsibilities to other people. This prefaces that particularly haunting ending wherein her friend ultimately becomes abstract, an image, aesthetic and/or concept to entertain the protagonist on her TV.

Truly a lesson in why the wellness culture of the privileged is disgusting!