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A review by jenpaul13
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
4.0
Even those with advantages and opportunities in life experience alienation, but few are likely taken to the extreme depicted in My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Deciding to take year to enter a questionably prescribed medicinal coma for some much desired rest, an attractive and accomplished twenty-six year old woman experiments with hibernation from her Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, paid for by her inheritance from her deceased parents, during the year 2000. Self-prescribing and initially pulling away from social engagements in favor of resting at home, the young woman seeks out an undoubtedly bad therapist and feeds her the lines she needs to in order to obtain the medications to induce slumber. Forsaking experiences and relationships, apart from her alleged best friend who arrives to check in on her occasionally, the young woman is able to sleep most of the day and reflect on her life so far in the meager time she's conscious.
A quick, thoughtful read offering an easy-to-relate-to desire to spend copious amounts of time sleeping to avoid the harsher realities of life, though I do have a lingering wonder of how the narrator survived such a long time of taking such a variety of medications. Moshfegh has a knack for writing in a manner that is brutally honest and holds nothing back, providing a much-needed but not frequently offered glimpse behind the facades people construct to present an image of accepted or normal human existence. Though readers might not have much in common with the narrator, the ideas expressed within the text through her thoughts and actions are easy to connect and relate with. The ending provides a good punch with the contextual time frame in which the narrative takes place and adds a new dimension from which to contemplate the story's message.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Deciding to take year to enter a questionably prescribed medicinal coma for some much desired rest, an attractive and accomplished twenty-six year old woman experiments with hibernation from her Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, paid for by her inheritance from her deceased parents, during the year 2000. Self-prescribing and initially pulling away from social engagements in favor of resting at home, the young woman seeks out an undoubtedly bad therapist and feeds her the lines she needs to in order to obtain the medications to induce slumber. Forsaking experiences and relationships, apart from her alleged best friend who arrives to check in on her occasionally, the young woman is able to sleep most of the day and reflect on her life so far in the meager time she's conscious.
A quick, thoughtful read offering an easy-to-relate-to desire to spend copious amounts of time sleeping to avoid the harsher realities of life, though I do have a lingering wonder of how the narrator survived such a long time of taking such a variety of medications. Moshfegh has a knack for writing in a manner that is brutally honest and holds nothing back, providing a much-needed but not frequently offered glimpse behind the facades people construct to present an image of accepted or normal human existence. Though readers might not have much in common with the narrator, the ideas expressed within the text through her thoughts and actions are easy to connect and relate with. The ending provides a good punch with the contextual time frame in which the narrative takes place and adds a new dimension from which to contemplate the story's message.