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dontjudgeabrooke 's review for:
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
by Ottessa Moshfegh
Uh-oh. Am I dumb? Did this go over my head?
I don't mind an unlikeable protagonist, and it's an interesting concept. But I'm not sure I got the point, and it almost seemed like I missed something at the end — was there any payoff to her year-long experiment? Is the meaning that there is no meaning? Or is it that in the end, she realizes how precious the little things in life are and how much she loves Reva? Or that she's jealous of the tower jumper's wide-awakeness while she feels personally unable to truly wake up? Or is it meant to parody/critique the self-aggrandizing, pretentious nature of modern art? I couldn't tell you.
What I can tell you is that like 30% of this book is just lists of things: medicines, movies, food, beautiful blonde celebrities the protagonist apparently resembles, etc. Maybe the endless lists were intended to bring us into the protagonist's monotony and malaise, or maybe it was just poor, repetitive writing in a story that ultimately doesn't have much to say.
Not sure what it says about me that I thought the bits about Trevor were probably the most interesting, although it's no surprise to me that men like Trevor blow chunks and exist in DROVES.
Quotes that spoke to me:
I don't mind an unlikeable protagonist, and it's an interesting concept. But I'm not sure I got the point, and it almost seemed like I missed something at the end — was there any payoff to her year-long experiment? Is the meaning that there is no meaning? Or is it that in the end, she realizes how precious the little things in life are and how much she loves Reva? Or that she's jealous of the tower jumper's wide-awakeness while she feels personally unable to truly wake up? Or is it meant to parody/critique the self-aggrandizing, pretentious nature of modern art? I couldn't tell you.
What I can tell you is that like 30% of this book is just lists of things: medicines, movies, food, beautiful blonde celebrities the protagonist apparently resembles, etc. Maybe the endless lists were intended to bring us into the protagonist's monotony and malaise, or maybe it was just poor, repetitive writing in a story that ultimately doesn't have much to say.
Not sure what it says about me that I thought the bits about Trevor were probably the most interesting, although it's no surprise to me that men like Trevor blow chunks and exist in DROVES.
Quotes that spoke to me:
- Men don’t feel bad the way you want them to.
- I knew how this new affair would play out for him. He'd win her over with a few months of honorable declarations—"I want to be there for you. Please, lean on me. I love you!"— but when something actually difficult happened—her ex-husband sued her for custody, for example—Trevor would start to have doubts.
*Listened to audiobook