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A review by frutsbasket
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
1.0
Okay so reading this felt like a chore… I knewww what i was getting into and deep down I wanted to like this book but ofc it had… issues lol.
1. I cannot get past the negative slant towards Asians, and the tokenism of Whoopi Goldberg? I think Asian comments aside it would’ve been more tolerable? The most problematic part for me is that REMOVING the comments wouldn’t change the story at all, proving it’s just weird and unnecessary and distasteful. For me it didn’t add to the “unlikeable qualities of the main character” but rather wtf the writer thought while adding those comments… it made me uncomfy… and the lie the narrator made about “a big black man from the gym gave me STDs.”?????????? I scratched my head…
2. I think it was interesting of a choice how wealthy and well off our Narrator was, and I think I know what the author was doing but these stories do not land well with me- privilege in and privilege out was all I could grasp and I couldn’t feel bad for someone in that situation no matter how hard I wanted to…. i think having the narrator be normal, maybe from socio economic disparities, with more on the line would’ve been a more interesting story- someone with something to lose would’ve been more tasteful than someone with everything (besides the parents she doesn’t have anymore)
3. I think the ending picked up for me, maybe I was excited for it to end? But the last 90% or so was great when she sold her stuff and had a system… I see why there’s an appeal for those last couple of pages
4. How she treated Reva was… interesting. I get that their friendship that wasn’t working was to show how they’re two people in the same spot of privilege, both sad and both dealing with their own demons differently… but the narrator came off as the bigger asshole??
Overall, this book felt like a huge chore
1. I cannot get past the negative slant towards Asians, and the tokenism of Whoopi Goldberg? I think Asian comments aside it would’ve been more tolerable? The most problematic part for me is that REMOVING the comments wouldn’t change the story at all, proving it’s just weird and unnecessary and distasteful. For me it didn’t add to the “unlikeable qualities of the main character” but rather wtf the writer thought while adding those comments… it made me uncomfy… and the lie the narrator made about “a big black man from the gym gave me STDs.”?????????? I scratched my head…
2. I think it was interesting of a choice how wealthy and well off our Narrator was, and I think I know what the author was doing but these stories do not land well with me- privilege in and privilege out was all I could grasp and I couldn’t feel bad for someone in that situation no matter how hard I wanted to…. i think having the narrator be normal, maybe from socio economic disparities, with more on the line would’ve been a more interesting story- someone with something to lose would’ve been more tasteful than someone with everything (besides the parents she doesn’t have anymore)
3. I think the ending picked up for me, maybe I was excited for it to end? But the last 90% or so was great when she sold her stuff and had a system… I see why there’s an appeal for those last couple of pages
4. How she treated Reva was… interesting. I get that their friendship that wasn’t working was to show how they’re two people in the same spot of privilege, both sad and both dealing with their own demons differently… but the narrator came off as the bigger asshole??
Overall, this book felt like a huge chore