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A review by karlaunderbrink
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
dark
emotional
funny
sad
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
4.5
the idea of sleeping an entire year has crossed everyone's mind at some point (i hope) but it's always been a passing or intrusive thought, nothing one would take actual action upon. well, one person did it, sort of. our nameless narrator, a hot rich but deeply depressed new york socialite
fell into deep depression after bottling up the emotions brought on by the death of her parents. while these things are quite common and majority of the working class has had to deal with the death of a parent and move on with their lives, our spoiled and bratty main character does not. who can blame her though, no one taught her how to deal with her emotions and her privilege has always allowed her to dodge them. even though you want to absolutely hate her for what she does and the way she thinks, all you can do is sympathize. there is this grit and emotion that is deep inside of us and this book contextualizes that and makes it palatable. the point of it is less about feeling pity for the character but a criticism on our capitalistic society and how the "less fortunate" have little to no time to process their emotions before going back to feeding the machine. but even when the rich have all this time and money they still can't process their own emotions so really, can humans ever live without grief? that is the question this book answers.
fell into deep depression after bottling up the emotions brought on by the death of her parents. while these things are quite common and majority of the working class has had to deal with the death of a parent and move on with their lives, our spoiled and bratty main character does not. who can blame her though, no one taught her how to deal with her emotions and her privilege has always allowed her to dodge them. even though you want to absolutely hate her for what she does and the way she thinks, all you can do is sympathize. there is this grit and emotion that is deep inside of us and this book contextualizes that and makes it palatable. the point of it is less about feeling pity for the character but a criticism on our capitalistic society and how the "less fortunate" have little to no time to process their emotions before going back to feeding the machine. but even when the rich have all this time and money they still can't process their own emotions so really, can humans ever live without grief? that is the question this book answers.