My Year of Rest and Relaxation

By: Ottessa Moshfegh

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

The New York Times Bestseller • New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Vice, Bustle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, and The AV Club

“One of the most compelling protagonists modern fiction has offered in years: a loopy, quietly furious pillhead whose Ambien ramblings and Xanaxed b*tcheries somehow wend their way through sad and funny and strange toward something genuinely profound.” — Entertainment Weekly

“Darkly hilarious . . . [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.” —Vogue

“Ottessa Moshfegh is easily the most interesting contemporary American writer on the subject of being alive when being alive feels terrible.” —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker

From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.

Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.

Entertained by sarcasm and pessimism?

Struggled with the characters smug and callous attitude. She's entitled and privileged and vain. She hates herself and every one else. As the story progressed I could sympathize with her feelings and issues. Self loathing, irritation at just existing some days. Not being a good friend to yourself or anyone else. Toxic inner thoughts overriding a normal life. Overall the story is about average people trying to deal with average stress and loss. It was entertaining to see what would happen next since it involved drug induced black outs. The only real epiphany seemed to be in the very last paragraphs of the story.

Magnificent

I could not “put this book down,” could not stop listening. What a writer! Julia Whelan does a masterful job of bringing this extraordinary work to life. Thanks for this beautiful production.

I eschewed sleep until this tale was all told

I was browsing my way toward a worthy recipient, second and third guessing my shortlist as I do when I'm down to one credit.

A cluster of almost angry opinions cemented my decision. I knew this book was my sort of book, my kind of story.

I absorbed every word. They felt like memories. I couldn't find the source of indignation the protagonist inspired - this narrative is first person introspective (not really a thing) the heroine could be accused of misanthropy or smug superiority - in the hands of a writer with inferior skill, earnest despair would yield to defeaning drone.

How pleased I am to have discovered Moshfegh's singular wisdom and alchemy

I absolutely hated it but in the end I loved it

there was way too much about the story that spoke to me personally. Either past depressions our future depressions I'll have. it put all of that into perspective. in the performance by Julia Whelan was incredible. I felt each character but they were real in a part of my day today. I get the book is only 7 hours in 15 minutes but I think this will change my life forever.

Wow

An introspective journey that’s delicious, sad, but enlightened humor, brilliant, an introspective journey, as dark as the bottom of your throat.