My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh Review

Title: My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Author: Ottessa Moshfegh

Genre: Contemporary

Blurb: 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.

Me: I've seen this incredible cover everywhere, and finally decided to see what the hype was about. Definitely nothing like I expected, but not too groundbreaking or even really that interesting. 

The Girls by Emma Cline Review

Title: The Girls

Author: Emma Cline

Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong.

Me: One distinctive change from this summer has been that I've started to actively read more adult contemporary fiction, a genre that I mostly avoided unless books were critically acclaimed. It's been really nice, keeping me reading not just for education but for fun, and has also shown me some general flaws of popular "literary" or adult fiction. The Girls was one of those, where I found myself extremely interested in the story yet not entirely compelled by the writing, not intoxicated by the world of the book. 

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Review

Title: Giovanni's Room
Author: James Baldwin

Genre: Fiction

Blurb: Baldwin's haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature. In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.

Examining the mystery of love and passion in an intensely imagined narrative, Baldwin creates a moving and complex story of death and desire that is revelatory in its insight. 

Me: I haven't read such beautiful fiction in a while. Baldwin's command of language is just absolutely mind-blowing, and creates the most stunning atmosphere of Paris, all the while capturing some of the most complex facets of love and desire with such clarity.