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

4.0

Upon finishing My Year of Rest and Relaxation I was struck by the thought that I couldn’t remember the protagonists name. That’s because she doesn’t name them. For some reason I felt shocked by this - often unnamed protagonists are a difficult sell for me. The writing required to keep them unnamed can take me out of the natural cadence of the story. Not so here. And, after, some reflection, I think it’s a testament to Moshfegh’s first person narrative that I didn’t feel I need to know this girls name - for a little while I *was* this blonde graduate, orphaned, emotionally exhausted, spiralling towards a twisted sense of rest. I found the book was as much about Reva, an equally relatable female character whose story is interwoven into that of our protagonist, adding a great deal of heart and grounding to what otherwise might be a very ungrounded read. The book was without airs and graces - women have hard or mean thoughts and so hard and mean things, just like every person (male, female or otherwise) has the capacity to do. The time setting adds something, a simplicity I feel, without the Rest and Relaxation needing to get bogged down with the quagmire of social media and constant connectivity. The read was quick and at once introspective and easy.