Product reviewsMy Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (Paperback, 2018)

I loved it. Despite nothing much happening it is utterly compelling and very contemporary

I read My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh for my book group having previously known nothing about the book or the author.

An unnamed, wealthy and attractive young New York woman decides to take a year-long sleep. She is aided by Dr Tuttle, a self absorbed and distracted psychiatrist, who always has her prescription pad at the ready and is willing to dole out ever stronger pharmaceuticals (her endless psychobabble, diagnoses and drug descriptions are very funny). The narrator's year long sleep is consistently interrupted by her bulimic "best friend" Reva whose dialogue is peppered with self-help aphorisms and who is usually on some new insane diet. During the course of the book we also learn about Trevor, the narrator's appalling Wall Street boyfriend, the recent death of both her parents, and her job at a fashionable art gallery. I loved it. Despite nothing much happening it is utterly compelling and very contemporary.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation uses vicious humour to engage with some profound issues: narcissism, abandonment, privilege, self loathing, identity, status, fashion, art, urbanity and more.

I love this sort of thing. It combines the blankness of Bret Easton Ellis with the pharmacology of Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation. I am going to be reading Ottessa Moshfegh's 2016 Booker nominated Eileen as soon as I can. I can't wait. A new favourite author. Hurrah.

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