Ottessa Moshfegh: My year of rest and relaxation (2018)
288 pages
English language
Published July 10, 2018
It's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's 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.
It's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's 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.
I love Ottessa Moshfegh's writing, but this just didn't come together
I love Ottessa Moshfegh's writing, but this just didn't come together
This is the first book I've read by this celebrated author who came out with this particular work not long before the COVID-19 pandemic with its grief and trauma erupted, causing a big reception on social media then. She has been influenced by writers who take risks with characters who live on the edge. Here the protagonist is struggling with grief and trying to extinguish her consciousness through drugs for a year, believing it will wipe herself clean again. The writing makes it clear she is doing bad things, though not to get high, and subjects her to as much ridicule as anyone else. This is not as much a moral judgment as a description of the mental and physical process of abusing her body nearly to the point of death, with the gross parts left in. The disgusting sections serve a function, and even the nihilism gets a take-down …
This is the first book I've read by this celebrated author who came out with this particular work not long before the COVID-19 pandemic with its grief and trauma erupted, causing a big reception on social media then. She has been influenced by writers who take risks with characters who live on the edge. Here the protagonist is struggling with grief and trying to extinguish her consciousness through drugs for a year, believing it will wipe herself clean again. The writing makes it clear she is doing bad things, though not to get high, and subjects her to as much ridicule as anyone else. This is not as much a moral judgment as a description of the mental and physical process of abusing her body nearly to the point of death, with the gross parts left in. The disgusting sections serve a function, and even the nihilism gets a take-down here. The prose is precisely crafted whether describing mourning customs, status signals in the year 2000, or the aftermath of a manic blackout. The protagonist has little interest in sticking to norms of behavior in any but an a superficial, ironic fashion. At the same time, it goes deep into philosophy as we spend so much time inside the head of a person who is relentlessly pushing herself into areas that seem anti-life, destructive, but also banal.
I was thinking if this story had been instead an adventure about an astronaut sleeping while traveling to a distant star, how much would my attitude to the story change? Why or why not? Or if it were about a vampire unconscious in a casket through centuries? By the end of the story, there is a remarkable section where thoughts about art and ordinary activities suggest an entirely different attitude to the reason for conscious life which felt like it took the book into a whole different plane. I did not expect to like this book as much as I did even as I recognized that it would not be the sort of thing for so many people I know.
The audiobook narration by Julia Whelan brought out the dark humor and portrayed the annoying characters in a way that helped make them seem like real people. I was able to sense now and then that there was real pain going on alongside the nonsense.
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.
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
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
