In 2018, author Ottessa Moshfegh published her second novel “My Year Of Rest and Relaxation,” a satirical literary fiction novel following an unnamed woman who is internally suffering and is planning on taking enough sleeping pills to fall asleep for a year. 

The narrator of “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” is far from likable. She exhibits behavior that can best be described as self absorbed and self serving. Her privileged initiative makes her come across as apathetic towards others, and Moshfegh does not attempt to make the reader forget her flawed ideals, but she manages to put the narrator through situations that allow the audience understand her as a person and provide insight into why in her mind her actions are justified. It does not mean that she is a good person but instead remind the reader that characters can be complex.

The narrator feels helpless in her existence on the earth feeling like no one truly cares for her. Her parents are both dead, her best friend cares more for her wealth than her as a person, her boyfriend is a horrible person and her psychiatrist keeps giving her more pills rather than try to help her. The narrator is not coping with her personal tragedies in healthy ways, but instead solely relying on the pills her psychiatrist provides her. Moshfegh addresses these unhealthy coping methods in an intelligent and thoughtful way that helps inform the story as it progresses.

The novel is told in the first person point of view, so the reader is getting the narrator’s internal dialogue at all times. Moshfegh intentionally describes the narrator as the ideal standard of a woman, as seen in the eyes of the patriarchy, to challenge how the reader perceives people like the narrator. The narrator has everything she could possibly want; She is an attractive white trust fund baby, she has a well paying job and she attends parties with celebrities. 

The narrator is meant to represent idealism which is later contrasted with her mental struggles. She is suffering in a world where she is supposed to be seen as the attainable standard to fellow women. The narrator being a walking contradiction has a significant impact on the plot as the interactions between her and other female characters are often filled with jealousy and bitterness towards the narrator.

In conclusion, Ottessa Moshfegh’s “My Year Of Rest and Relaxation” is a darkly comedic with an insightful but rather bleak perspective on beauty standards and modern societal structure.