Review of 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Very entertaining
356 pages
English language
Published July 10, 2018
Early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side. The alienation of an unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination to leave behind the world's travails. She is also beset by dangerous blackouts induced by a powerful medication. -- adapted from back cover
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the …
Early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side. The alienation of an unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination to leave behind the world's travails. She is also beset by dangerous blackouts induced by a powerful medication. -- adapted from back cover
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.
Very entertaining
my 256th book on Goodreads! I feel like this should be read in one sitting, as any mood that was built up is abruptly lost on looking up from the book, as if opening a pressure cooker. The last act felt hasty, especially after pages upon pages of the narrator talking about Whoopi Goldberg.
J'ai un faible pour ces romans américains qui dépeignent le désespoir de ceux qui ont tout mais qui ne trouvent guère de sens à la vie. L'autrice se place à merveille dans la lignée des auteurs comme Don DeLillo, Brett Easton Ellis ou encore Salinger.
Toutefois elle y ajoute son regard typiquement féminin, une sorte d'attente de la société auprès de la personnage principale qui ne se retrouve pas dans les romans de ses homologues masculins. J'avais éprouvé ce même sentiment à la lecture des Furies de Lauren Groff.
Je ne conseille pas ce roman à tout le monde mais si vous êtes curieuses ou curieux et aimez, comme moi, cette tradition du roman américain, je vous le conseille.
ahhh let's talk about disappointment.. to be fair, i should've given up with the book sooner because even though it was kinda interesting at first, there was just not enough reasons to continue reading this and the only thing it did was just be as disappointing as i feared it might be.
long story short, neither the protagonist nor the plot make any sense.
reminder to myself: it's okay to give up reading some books, 馬鹿
Solid