My Year of Rest and Relaxation

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Company type	Novel
Industry	Literature
Founded	2018
Founder	Ottessa Moshfegh
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Products	Book

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a 2018 novel authored by American writer Ottessa Moshfegh. This work, her second full-length novel, takes place in New York City during the years 2000 and 2001, centering on an unnamed female protagonist who increasingly consumes prescription drugs with the goal of sleeping through an entire year.

Background and publication

Following Moshfegh’s initial novel, Eileen (2015), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, she also published a novella titled McGlue (2014) and a short story collection named Homesick for Another World (2017). At first, Moshfegh intended for this novel to focus on the events surrounding the September 11 attacks, even reaching out to terrorism expert Paul Bremer, but eventually changed course.

Regarding her experience writing the book, Moshfegh reflected:

"I believe the novel succeeded because it allowed me to move beyond many of those earlier concerns. When I was writing it, my passion and anger were directed outwardly, so the narrator’s tone—who I consider a very angry individual—is no longer something I identify with."

The book was released on July 10, 2018, through Penguin Press.

Plot

Set at the turn of the millennium in 2000, the story follows an unnamed narrator—a slim blonde woman from an affluent WASP background and a recent graduate in art history from Columbia University—as she grapples with grief and societal expectations. Both her parents passed away during her college years: her father succumbed to cancer while her mother died by suicide connected to psychiatric medication use and alcohol abuse.

Residing on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, she seeks treatment from Dr. Tuttle, a psychiatrist known for unconventional approaches who prescribes her a cocktail of sleeping aids and anti-anxiety medications. Her objective is to spend most of her time asleep, numbing herself with pharmaceuticals and watching moderately popular films until her VCR ceases functioning.

After losing her position at an art gallery, she depends financially on her inheritance and unemployment benefits, commencing a yearlong "reset" by extensively sleeping. This plan is frequently interrupted by visits from Reva, her college roommate who envies both her wealth and appearance. Despite disliking Reva’s social ambitions and personal struggles—including her mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis and an affair with a married employer—the narrator endures these disturbances.

She also maintains a fragile relationship with Trevor, an older banker employed at the World Trade Center, who repeatedly ends their relationship to pursue younger women but returns following breakups or at the narrator’s prompting.

At first, her excursions are limited to nearby locations such as a local bodega, Dr. Tuttle’s office, and the Rite Aid pharmacy for prescriptions. However, as her medication intake escalates, she experiences episodes of sleepwalking that lead to visits to nightclubs—evidenced by Polaroid photographs and glitter found upon awakening—and once finds herself on a train en route to Reva’s mother’s funeral on New Year’s Eve 2000.

To guarantee uninterrupted rest, she opts to remain locked inside her apartment while asleep. She arranges with Ping Xi, an artist affiliated with her former gallery, to deliver meals and necessities over four months in exchange for producing artwork during her unconscious state—requiring that all signs of his presence be erased during her brief waking intervals every three days.

In preparation for this isolation, she clears out her apartment, gifting designer clothing to Reva, who has recently been dumped by her boss—unaware that she is pregnant. The boss had planned a promotion transferring Reva to the World Trade Center office; Reva intends to have an abortion. The narrator then sleeps continuously until June 1.

During the summer of 2001, she gradually reintegrates into daily life by spending time in parks and redecorating her apartment with secondhand furnishings sourced from Goodwill. Her prolonged rest alters her perspective: she relinquishes previous disdain for Reva and genuinely reciprocates Reva’s earlier expressions of love, although Reva becomes increasingly distant.

The narrator attempts to contact Reva on her birthday in August but is dismissed; they never reconnect. On September 11, Trevor is honeymooning in Barbados, while Reva perishes in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The narrator purchases a new VCR to record news reports, repeatedly viewing footage of a woman jumping from the North Tower whom she believes to be Reva.

Style and themes

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is told from a first-person perspective, centering on a protagonist characterized as an "antihero" who defies conventional female caregiver stereotypes and is described as "hypnotically unlikeable." This portrayal may challenge readers' tolerance for protagonists with unappealing traits. Critics have praised the narrator's sharp, biting observations as a major appeal of the book. In The New Yorker, Jia Tolentino emphasized the novel’s exploration of surface-level beauty and privilege, shifting the reader’s discomfort from characters themselves to broader themes such as the nature of effort and everyday existence amid a world that swings between the tragic and the mundane.

Tolentino further characterized the work as "tuned to a hyper-contemporary frequency," where the narrator’s detachment contrasts with traditional ideals of sincerity and active participation, embodying a solipsistic form of wellness. While often labeled "blackly funny," the novel transcends humor to delve into themes of mourning, gender inequity, and functions as a somber allegory on America, particularly within the context of 9/11.

Interpretations differ: some view it as a commentary on capitalist society or an inquiry into self-care practices, whereas others highlight its belief in art’s capacity to render life meaningful despite an unbearable reality.

Reception

Laura Miller of Slate commended the novel for its compelling character construction and mounting suspense. Publishers Weekly described it as "captivating and disquieting," noting Moshfegh's skillful mix of provocation with dark humor. Both Miller and Publishers Weekly pointed out some pacing challenges in the middle sections; however, the conclusion was widely praised, with Miller acknowledging Moshfegh's enhanced ability to resolve plotlines compared to her debut, Eileen.

Jia Tolentino from The New Yorker hailed Moshfegh as "the most interesting contemporary American writer on the subject of being alive when being alive feels terrible." In The New York Times, Dwight Garner expressed certain reservations but ultimately lauded Moshfegh’s incisive, misanthropic prose style as a "deep pleasure to read."

Adaptations

In 2018, film rights were secured by LuckyChap Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment, with Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap producing alongside her husband Tom Ackerley. A German-language theatrical adaptation titled Mein Jahr der Ruhe und Entspannung debuted in 2020 in Zürich, under the direction of Yana Ross.

External links

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation reading and interview featuring Ottessa Moshfegh at Politics and Prose on July 25, 2018, available via YouTube