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A review by emmareadstoomuch
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
5.0
not to sound like i believe myself to the center of the universe, but...i am and i do and this book was probably written for me.
i, like our protagonist, am a 24-year-old blonde with exactly one toxic but adoring friend who daydreams about the idea of sleeping away a week / month / year and waking up refreshed and renewed and in a slightly different, shinier life.
in college, the aforementioned singular friend and i lived through finals and midterms and forty-hour workweeks combined with internships and full-time course-loads by fantasizing about comas. just a few weeks or so, no brain damage, modern-day snow whites escaping capitalism or the patriarchy or what have you.
all of this is to say that the only thing that separates me from this protagonist is the first two decades of the millennium and the wherewithal to get it done.
life is painful and exhausting and gross. life is stained crate & barrel couches and intolerable people with trust funds who can't tolerate themselves and caffeine addictions upheld by sh*tty coffee. life needs pills to get you through it and pills to get you out of it.
but life is also the in-betweens: waking up from blackouts (proverbial or literal) to full-body enjoy a slice of pizza standing in front of your fridge. feeling the sun on your skin at the end of winter. sitting in a park and watching people be happy. calling friends.
and life is knowing that the worst part of it all could be just around the corner, on the very last page. but the best part could come a few after.
and maybe the bad parts are actually the in-betweens of the happy ones.
that isn't what this book is about, but it's a fun side effect.
bottom line: this book is good.
reread update: want to note that a) i don't think that you're supposed to like this protagonist, god help me, and b) raising this to a 5, because this is not a perfect book (that ending...shudder) but it's close to it for me!
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2nd reread
depressive episode reading
--------------
reread pre-review
i have almost no new insight.
still review & rating to come
--------------
reread update
doing the Bravest thing i can imagine: rereading this less than 3 weeks after i read it for the first time just so i can buddy read with lily (and also hopefully figure out a rating)
--------------
pre-review
how could i possibly be expected to sum up this book with a number between 1 and 5?
review & rating to come
--------------
tbr review
secretly i hope every book i pick up will turn out to be the kind of depressing, nasty, female-authored literary fiction populated by unlikable young women and Something to Say about the soullessness of late-stage capitalism that changes my internal monologue for 10-14 days and sears disturbing images into my brain.
i have a good feeling about this one.
i, like our protagonist, am a 24-year-old blonde with exactly one toxic but adoring friend who daydreams about the idea of sleeping away a week / month / year and waking up refreshed and renewed and in a slightly different, shinier life.
in college, the aforementioned singular friend and i lived through finals and midterms and forty-hour workweeks combined with internships and full-time course-loads by fantasizing about comas. just a few weeks or so, no brain damage, modern-day snow whites escaping capitalism or the patriarchy or what have you.
all of this is to say that the only thing that separates me from this protagonist is the first two decades of the millennium and the wherewithal to get it done.
life is painful and exhausting and gross. life is stained crate & barrel couches and intolerable people with trust funds who can't tolerate themselves and caffeine addictions upheld by sh*tty coffee. life needs pills to get you through it and pills to get you out of it.
but life is also the in-betweens: waking up from blackouts (proverbial or literal) to full-body enjoy a slice of pizza standing in front of your fridge. feeling the sun on your skin at the end of winter. sitting in a park and watching people be happy. calling friends.
and life is knowing that the worst part of it all could be just around the corner, on the very last page. but the best part could come a few after.
and maybe the bad parts are actually the in-betweens of the happy ones.
that isn't what this book is about, but it's a fun side effect.
bottom line: this book is good.
reread update: want to note that a) i don't think that you're supposed to like this protagonist, god help me, and b) raising this to a 5, because this is not a perfect book (that ending...shudder) but it's close to it for me!
--------------
2nd reread
depressive episode reading
--------------
reread pre-review
i have almost no new insight.
still review & rating to come
--------------
reread update
doing the Bravest thing i can imagine: rereading this less than 3 weeks after i read it for the first time just so i can buddy read with lily (and also hopefully figure out a rating)
--------------
pre-review
how could i possibly be expected to sum up this book with a number between 1 and 5?
review & rating to come
--------------
tbr review
secretly i hope every book i pick up will turn out to be the kind of depressing, nasty, female-authored literary fiction populated by unlikable young women and Something to Say about the soullessness of late-stage capitalism that changes my internal monologue for 10-14 days and sears disturbing images into my brain.
i have a good feeling about this one.