castellano abajo
.
In the year 2000, New York City, in a flat on the Upper East Side in
Manhattan, a 20 something year old woman decides to sleep during one
entire year, only waking up every couple of days for basic self
maintenance as eating and washing herself. With the help of sleeping
pills she gets from a crazy psychiatrist she pulls through with her
plan, but not without some side effect. First person narrator takes
us with her while she wakes up, a couple of days after falling
asleep, usually with evidence in her house that she has been
sleepwalking, going to parties, shopping, etc.. When awake she binge
watches movies, her favourite ones featuring actress Whoopi Goldberg.
Evidently in a position of privilege, the narrator without name, has
enough money to sustain herself for a whole year without working. She
is conscientious about this, she refers to herself as a WASP
(White Anglo-Saxon Protestant; traditionally privileged group of
population), but she doesn't care about it, nor does she care about
anything in the world. She studied history of modern art at Columbia
and worked for some time at a popular contemporary art gallery, a
world which she despises, until she is asked to leave because she
starts sleeping at work.
It's a fun read, although I would not say I had missed anything if I
hadn't picked it up. The kind of book one would want to read at the
dentist's, for example, when you just can't concentrate on something
serious or profound, but need to get distracted and laugh a bit.
The protagonist is an anti-heroine, who never wanted to sleep away a
problem? And then she is so selfish and superficial it can only be
laughed at. I think the novel only “works” because it is full of
dark humour, beginning with the title. The shrink she finds for her
is another crazy figure, a weird cat lady who just gives her more and
more pills as she complains about persisting insomnia in her
consulting room once a month.
Why does our girl decide to hibernate like this? She is obviously
depressed, her parents died, but it could be she was already
depressed before. She does not seem capable of having emotions or
empathy towards her close ones. These are serious topics, alienation
disconnection, disenchantment, trauma, social reproduction, we learn
a bit about her upbringing and her current life, but we don't get to
explore those problems really closely.
My year of rest and relaxation
can seem a depressing novel to some readers, because all social
relations are deeply dysfunctional or straight forward abusive, for
example, the relationship with her on/off boyfriend Trevor is
disturbing, as both partners are relentless egoists. But also with
her best and only friend, Reva. She is actually a quite normal girl,
described as superficial, interested only in fashion and beauty and
calorie counting, but we know this through the eyes of our selfish
narrator, so we can be mislead here, Reva certainly has some body
image issues. She is there taking care of our main character while
she sleeps.
What I didn't like was the ending, it was largely foreseeable. (I
won't spoiler it but I say as much as it takes place in the year
2001.). While not as entertaining as I would have liked, especially
towards the end, it reads quickly and, overall, is entertaining
enough.
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En el año 2000, en Nueva York, una chica veinteañera está deprimida y decide dormir durante un año con la ayuda de varios medicamentos.
Me divertí, es para mi un libro que sirve de entretenimiento, en el lado leve de las cosas, como mirar una série que nos gusta más o menos, ló suficiente para no pensar que estamos perdiendo nuestro tiempo. Discute temas serios como trauma, depresión, reproducción social, pero con una especie de humor negro o sarcasmo.
Creo que la novela solo funciona porque está llena de humor, la protagonista es un anti héroe, ella es sarcástica, piensa que todo es una mierda, el mundo del arte moderno, en el que trabaja, sobretodo.
Sonámbula y hace cosas de los que no se acuerda en absoluto. Por ejemplo se despierta tres días después de haberse dormido y descubre que hay fotos de ella tomados en un club de noche.
Obviamente es una novela sobre privilegio, porque ella tiene dinero suficiente para no trabajar durante un año. Ella es consciente de que es WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Además esta convencida de ser muy bonita, sin tener que hacer nada por ello. En contraste su mejor y única amiga Reva lucha para mantenerse financieramente y tiene complejos de su aspecto físico.
La protagonista sin nombre, estudió historia del arte y trabajó brevemente en una galería de arte moderno hasta ser despedido por dormir en el trabajo y negligenciar sus tareas en general.
Tiene un novio, Trevor, con quién tiene una relación disfuncional, o mejor dicho, él es tan egoísta como ella.
Con su mejor y única amiga, Reva, la relación también es disfuncional, pero ella no es egoísta , por el contrario, ella es la única que cuida a la protagonista cuando esta duerme. La protagonista que no parece ser capaz de tener afecto para nadie, por la manera que sus padres la educaron abusa un poco de la gentileza de Reva.
Me aburren los libros en los que la hija es casi la exacta copia de la madre, encima dándose cuenta.
El final me pareció previsible.
