Book Of The Month for March was Lessons in Chemistry by Ottessa Moshfegh. For online Book Clubbers there are some questions below for you to get involved with. Either answer in the comments section or use as discussion points at your next Book Club. If you haven’t read the book check out the Lowdown all about it here.
Rest and Relaxation – the blurb
On the surface, our narrator has everything you could want in life. She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate and lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance.
But there is a vacuum in her life and she’s got the perfect solution. She’s going to take a year under sedation to relax and hide away from the world.
What could possibly go wrong?
Discussion Points
The following are written with the presumption you have read My Year of Rest and Relaxation. If you haven’t, bookmark the post and come back to answer the questions later.
- What did you think of the cover for the book. How does it relate to the story?
- What does the book say about New York and the type of people that live there? Why did the book end with the Twin Tower terrorist attack?
- Why does our narrator have no name? Could she be described as simply the faceless poster girl for the issues in the book?
- Do you ever sympathise with our narrator? How much of her current issues could be put down to grief?
- Now that her year or relaxation is over, do you think our narrator goes on to live a happy, more fulfilling life?
- Why was our narrator never scared when she woke up from one of her blank episodes? She never seemed to fear rape, pregnancy, STIs, theft (even when her phone was missing), or significantly hurting herself. Had the drugs simply left her incapable of feeling anything, even self preservation?
Get Involved
Feel free to answer as many of the questions as you want. Post your replies below, discuss with us on social media using @BookSocialUK, or pose some questions of your own. If you enjoyed the questions, have a go at previous month’s Get Involved: Lessons in Chemistry.
