Why My Year of Rest and Relaxation is genius - Ottessa Moshfegh
I think this novel could be considered bad or just boring. Some people might even find it annoying or a “try-hard”, I think that is the genius of it. This book is about a young woman that decides that she is taking a year to sleep. A year to “hibernate” you might say. She takes pills to sleep and she barely leaves the house. It is funny and quirky but dark and depressing. I think the sassiness of the main character is what might drag people away. I however enjoyed every second of her character. She is obviously going through a really tough time, maybe because of her past or her relationships. We never find out why specifically she decided that was what she had to do. Sleeping could have been used by her to avoid her very real situation.
The scariest part is that she thinks she is doing the right thing. she alienates herself from the world, drugs herself, drinks and doesn’t eat much, and she thinks she is going to get better after a year. I think this novel should be a horror book. But I loved it. There is a very satisfying sense of “yes, I sometimes feel like I want to do this,” but, “I will never treat myself like this” because it’s a depressing story.
As terrifying as it is, the writing Moshfegh uses to handle the story is powerful. The sarcasm and dark comedy pushes the story further into a very straightforward and very approachable one for everyone.
The characters are deep and very well written, they convey emotion with everything they do. Reva is annoying but we still feel for her. Trevor we all hate. We hate the main character’s parents but we understand the suffering and we still feel bad for their death. I think this is where the novel is the most powerful. Going back on time to understand her suffering is depressing and hard. Sometimes I wished for her life to get better but I still found it very interesting that we got to understand a bit more of the bigger picture.
Some of my favourite parts of the book were when she was talking to Reva. It was extremely sassy and funny but still, it felt like it was a serious matter. Why was she still friends with her if she hated her so much? There are many discussions on bulimia and alcoholism so if you are triggered by these topics I would strongly advise against reading this as sometimes it felt like the main character (not the author) was taking the piss out of people with eating disorders. In reality, the author is very cleverly using these topics to show us how the main character sees the world, dark and insignificant.
The ending is where I get confused. Our main character has a massive redemption where she finally sees a point in life. Her last months in total hibernation are spent completely sleeping. But somehow after these 12 months of a very unhealthy lifestyle, she still comes out well and happy. To be completely honest, I felt like the ending was just a quick way to find a solution to everything. Really, it just felt like the author wanted to finish it and be like “So yeah, after all this time doing the worst for herself, she is totally fine and it works!”. I’m sure there is a very plausible explanation for this and I’m sure I am missing the point but, I wish there could be a moment when the character realises what she has done. Maybe she doesn’t realise that it was wrong but, that maybe she didn’t wish that feeling on anyone.
But, all in all, it was fantastic and I wish I could read the book again for the first time. Some of the sentences used were immaculate and filled with feelings I very much share. Her back story was somehow similar and very different from mine but I still felt understood on a very personal level that sometimes is hard to find.
A genius masterpiece I would talk about for days.