MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION

OTTESSA MOSHFEGH

Publisher: Penguin Press

Genre: Literary Fiction

File under, late to the party reads.

I thought my life would be more tolerable if my brain were slower to condemn the world around me.

There is humour in this book. Which is absurd considering the unethical plot and icky characters.

Our leading lady is young, rich, beautiful and clinically depressed. She wants to hibernate for a year and wake up as a shiny new version of herself. After experiences of death and loss, her choice to avoid life through medication (thanks to her psychiatrist and walking malpractice, Dr Tuttle) carves a path of alienation and abuse. Concurrently we trail our narrator through jaded recollections of her life and trauma.

If cynical humour is religion. Moshfegh is our leader. In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Moshfegh forces humour out of the obscene.

A heavily featured, unbalanced psychiatrist, a self-help obsessed best friend and Whoopi Goldbergs’ entire body of work provide stifled giggles across chapters. Never letting you linger for too long on sobering obscenities.

The pages slide by, clammy and uncomfortable. Our protagonist has no redeeming features. She is an elitist. Her words are an insufferable inner monologue bathed in a fever dream. There are acidic descriptions of events only a troubled mind could conjure. Occasionally Moshfegh slips into desperate shock value, listing her worst thoughts (this book may very well be an ode to lists). These shock jock moments feel unwelcome, when surrounded by a fleshed out and well written depiction of mental illness.

We can pull apart the pieces of privilege in this story. A young and beautiful white woman, reflecting on her anxieties and neglect. The prose is not endearing, its characters are adverse and the plot, grotesque. It does feel like the unlikable-ness of this book is the point. But it’s more than unlikable, it verges on inhumane.

Many have praised My Year of Rest and Relaxation’s description of clinical depression, an unlikable and ugly disease. The book also brushes against the commentary of how privilege doesn’t deter the helplessness of mental anguish. Unfortunately it feels as though the plot drives by these themes without stopping. The grotesque took priority over depth or conclusion.

After reading this book, we are left with the question of purpose. Why write this book? Does Moshfegh need a reason? Probably not. My Year of Rest and Relaxation does portray mental illness. The characters are tart and the plot captivating. This is the beauty of writing, it does not and should not follow your moral conclusions, that is not what books are for.

I hope Moshfegh is cackling at us all from her Californian mansion, rolling in her millions.

If you are struggling with depression I would avoid this book for now.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh is out now in hardback, ebook and audiobook.