“My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh: The Privilege of Not Being Quite Alive (BOOK REVIEW)

The Privilege of Not Being Quite Alive

Hey, Alex! What have you been reading lately?

I recently moved to London, and let me tell you - the transition from sharing a uni house with my best friends to living completely on my own in such a big city has been… intense. One second I’m laughing while watching the new season of The Bachelor, the next I have my face in the pillow wondering what the hell I’m doing with my life. So, what better time to pick up Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation - a novel about a woman who calls it quits and chooses to sleep through an entire year of her life. Honestly? Same.

Tell me more. What is the book about?

The novel follows a nameless narrator who decides she’s done with reality and goes into a state of hibernation. We don’t fully get her reasoning at the start, but as we go deeper we learn about the trauma of losing her parents, her toxic on-again-off-again with her ex, Travis, and her general disgust with the world. As we progress through the story, it becomes clear her choice is almost inevitable.

This is an uncomfortably relatable read. Not in the sense that I’m about to lock myself in my flat with a pharmacy’s worth of medication, but in the way that sometimes the only escape from societal pressure and heartbreak seems to be switching off completely.

What are some strong and weak points of the book?

The writing is the real hook here for me. Moshfegh’s style is razor sharp and manages to gut you while making you laugh at the same time. It’s like that Gracie Abrams line in “Death Wish”: twist the knife with a smile while you kill me. The prose is raw, funny, and threaded with early 2000s pop culture references that ground the surreal premise.

The therapist? Absolutely hilarious. I read most of this on the tube and kept laughing more and more with every new session and advice. Reva, the narrator’s best friend, is fascinating in her own, charming way. She’s relentlessly supportive, even though the narrator treats her horribly at an emotionally low for both moment. Honestly, I wouldn’t put up with it, but Reva does, which is proof of what a good friend should be like.

Privilege is another theme that comes up early but then dies out. The narrator inherits money from her late parents, and so doesn’t need to work. She can afford to “opt out” of life for a year. In contrast, Reva is broke, but yearning for the elite status of her friend. The juxtaposition is clever, but I wish Moshfegh had leaned into it more instead of letting it dissolve under all the sleeping pills the main character consumes on a daily.

Very little actually happens in My Year of Rest and Relaxation. The first hundred pages are mostly set-up, and the last hundred? Just her sleeping. For six months, straight. If anything, I was impressed by how Moshfegh can write so brilliantly about nothing happening at all.

Any final thoughts? Should I read it too?

I have mixed feelings. My Year of Rest and Relaxation is not, by any means, boring. But there’s just nothing going on in it, it’s all vibes. In the end, the heroine wakes up, healed and anew, ready to begin her second life of sorts. Nothing gripping or with a big twist. But if you’re down for something strange, darkly funny, and written in a way that makes boredom feel electric, then yes. You will like it.

Personally, reading this novel at a time when I felt low and unsure of myself, I weirdly came away feeling motivated. Not because I wanted to be like the main character, but because I didn’t. Watching her sleep through her life pushed me to want to be more present in my own one. And if that was Moshfegh’s goal all along, then mission accomplished.

Thank you so much!! Are there any similar books that you can recommend?

Here are two recs if you liked this one:

🍳 Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi — two estranged sisters, leading very different lives, switch places after one is diagnosed with cancer.

🌀 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath — a classic tale about a creative woman and how depression pulls her away from the world.

Happy reading!

📲 limaistyping…

rating: ☀️☀️☀️
tropes: 🤬 i hate everything | 🪦 grief and trauma | 🪶 the art of doing nothing | ⚖️ privilege debate | 💇‍♀️ reinventing oneself
read if you like: Whoopi Goldberg, contemporary art, cheap coffee, Y2K nostalgia, messaging your ex
look out for: 📚 fashion magazines | 🐒 a monkey sculpture | 🍦 melted ice cream | 💊 pills pills pills | 🏃‍♂️ a friend on a treadmill
"This felt like having everything and yet feeling like you don't have the most important thing of all - purpose."