My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

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Book Review on My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

An Overly Honest and Unnecessarily Explicit Book Review by LemondropBooktalks

Ah, the newest fad on bookstagram and booktok: Unhinged Women. Books about women doing all sorts of things - mostly wrong things. Hence the popular saying “I support women’s rights but, most importantly, I support women’s wrongs.” These books support women’s wrongs to the max. And I am loving it. What a time to be alive, in a world where we can read books written by women about women doing the craziest shit ever and just living life with a major “fuck it” attitude. It's iconic.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh was published 5 years ago in 2018, but it still is a common recommendation on those posts for books centered on unhinged women. On the Goodread’s “Unhinged Women” shelf there are 64 books, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation is number 15. It also appears on countless other lists, mostly alongside Moshfegh’s other work Eileen. Since I am beginning my quest into reading unhinged women fiction due to finishing my graduate degree and feeling completely lost and empty inside, this felt like a great place to start. It's an older novel, a staple in the genre, from a well loved female author, and has an interesting enough plot. As someone who also loves to sleep to avoid life, major stress, or any issues, I felt that I could relate and enjoy this work.

My overall thoughts on this novel are…okay. It was deeply okay. Which ruffled my feathers. I was told this novel was really something, with a completely unhinged main character. And she was, I guess? Sure, scamming your psychiatrist to prescribe you a ton of drugs that basically put you in a constantly sleeping state so you can sleep a whole year is unhinged. It is. I totally agree with that. But other than that…our narrator was not that crazy. I get where she was coming from, the grief and guilt and trauma she was carrying. I would sleep to forget that too! And her life felt…aimless. She had no need for a job, no loved ones, no social circle, no purpose. Sleeping to find peace in all of that makes sense. It really, truly does. Maybe that is what made this feel far from unhinged - I understood this woman. Are the women in these unhinged novels actually unhinged? Or are they just doing things women should be able to do if they want to and we as a society just see it as being unhinged? 

Now, I am not supporting the idea of sleeping an entire year. It's unhealthy, for sure, and is a coping mechanism that she totally abused. At the same time, is sleeping that much unhinged? Are any of the actions of these women unhinged, or are they just misunderstood? Because from where I am standing, it does not seem all that crazy to me. Poor mental health management, sure, but unhinged? Not so much.

This was the main takeaway for me, as a reader: what makes a woman unhinged? What makes her ‘crazy’ and what qualifies as her ‘doing crazy, unhinged things’? Is sleeping a whole year to forget her past, restart her present, and move forward really that crazy? This novel often reminded me of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These stories have different writing styles, different specifics, but the ultimate idea is what a woman sees and experiences in her life. Both women were dealing with mental health, one postpartum depression and another depression and alienation, and dealing with that in their own ways. From someone who does not understand, both these women sound crazy. For those that do, this makes sense. It is about the way people view women when they are struggling mentally. For me, My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a book that makes readers ask themselves how they see women in times of mental hardship and loneliness. Do we see them as crazy? Or do we understand?

Outside of that, I did not find this novel Earth shattering. It was interesting, considering it was a full novel where the main character slept through most of it, and I felt that the story moved along in a timely manner. I also enjoyed the narrator and her experiences, thoughts, and emotions. I felt sympathy for her struggles but also hate for her and the privileges she was wasting. It made the dynamic of her character very engaging for the reader. We have a woman we can relate to. We see her pain, the way she is so lonely, the way people treat her and the lack of purpose she has in this society. At the same time, she is skinny and pretty and rich and blonde. She has it all, in a way, and for that reason we hate her. If Moshfegh was trying to say “See, even everyone that ‘has it all’ does not really ‘have it all,’” then I do not think she did a very good job. If Moshfegh was writing this character to show us that we can feel this despair, hopelessness, emptiness and still have wonderful things, then I think she nailed it. If Moshfegh was writing this character to show us readers that we can sympathize with a character while hating them at the same time, I think she did an amazing job. At the same time, despite all of this, the novel did not do anything new for me. I have read books with similar themes, ideas, and concepts. Sure, no one has slept for a year, but other books have tackled this deal. Women and mental health and society. I liked the setting for this story, inside the life of a woman that wants to sleep through it all, and I liked the characterization, but I think the main message was not as unique as everyone overhypes this book to be.

The ending really upset me. I think that is the main reason why I struggled to like this book. It was phenomenally written and was a very cool idea and, even though the themes were not new, the themes were still great. Talking about the ways we react and cope with our mental health is always important. But...the way this novel ends…She wakes up and…that is all? She realizes she does love her best friend and she does care about her. But before she can show that, her best friend dies in 9/11. And because of that…she realizes life is worth living? She just…exists now? I was so thrown by this! Like she awakes to realize the world keeps going, even as you sleep, and people change and things happen. And she realizes this, wants more out of life, and just…lives that way now?!?!?!?!?!? I am sorry - yes this is a good ending. Hopefully, in a way, despite the national tragedy and loss of her friend. But at the SAME TIME ARE YOU FUCKING FOR REAL RIGHT NOW!?!?!??!? It’s giving “Hang in there!” cat poster in a therapist office vibes. It’s giving “life could be worse” vibes. It’s giving “i am not sure how to end this novel but this seems okay :)” vibes. And I hate it. Like. I know we don’t want her sad, and we do not want people to sleep to cope. But the wrap up felt TOO FAST! She came to this conclusion too quickly, easily, whatever. 

Maybe I am being picky. No, scratch that. I am being picky. It is, arguably, a fine ending. I just do not like it. And this is my review. So. Suck it.

Overall, I am done talking about this book. It was good but nothing to rave about. I have thought about it only twice since I read it, so, I will probably come to forget the details soon. But! But! I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves unhinged women, literary fiction, sleeping to cope with depression, or interested in light 2000s core. Happy reading to all of you. 

((That being said - I will be reading Eileen. I am curious. She wounds way more unhinged))

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Work Cited

Moshfegh, Ottessa. My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Penguin Press, 2018.