My Year of Rest and Relaxation Summary
Ottessa Moshfegh

My Year of Rest and Relaxation Overview

In Ottessa Moshfegh's literary novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, an unnamed 26-year-old narrator with a medicine cabinet full of sedatives attempts to binge sleep through an entire year of her life. As the months pass by, however, her nerves become increasingly frayed as she flashes back to memories of parental neglect, failed relationships and jobs, and death. After a climactic nervous breakdown, she hatches a risky plan to make it through the remainder of the year, hoping she will be reborn a new person at the end of it all. The novel considers themes related to emotional repression, grief, and loneliness.