Ms. Hen reviews My Year of Rest and Relaxation

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Ottessa Moshfegh

Penguin Press

2018

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she had read another by this author, EILEEN, which she reviewed a couple of years ago, and she adored. She ordered this book from her local library, and got ready to read another lovely book about a screwed up, unhappy woman. These are Ms. Hen’s favorite types of books to bury herself in.

This novel follows an unnamed protagonist in the year 2000 and 2001, when she decides to sleep for a year because she does not want to deal with her life. She already sleeps a lot when she decides this, but she goes to a psychiatrist and tells her that she has insomnia and asks for medication. The psychiatrist is unstable herself, and she gives the young woman a sheaf of prescriptions. She drugs herself and sleeps most of the time, except to shuffle to the corner bodega to buy coffee and snacks, and when her bulimic, emotionally unhealthy friend Reva comes to visit and complain about her life and beg her friend to go out.

The character has an on and off boyfriend who is a jerk, and she is as beautiful as a model. Both her parents have passed, and since she has a large inheritance, she does not have to work. When she did have a job, she worked at an art gallery, surrounded by the freaky artists of New York and beyond. She is a recent Colombia graduate who majored in art history.

The aspect of this novel that Ms. Hen admires the most is the humor. It’s a novel about depression! So how can it be funny? It just is. The humor is dry and realistic, and current to that time and place. The character is obsessed with Whoopi Goldberg and notices that every time she appears in a film or a TV show, she makes it ironic. Ms. Hen doesn’t feel that way about Whoopi Goldberg, but she does think that Whoopi brings realism to her screen presence.

Ms. Hen loves the descriptions of the art and artists in this novel. Ms. Hen is interested in contemporary art, and how some artists have excess time to be able to create perverted, offensive art, to be able to make bigger works to offend people, or at least attempt to do so. Ms. Hen enjoys museums and galleries filled with bizarre things like this.

Ms. Hen found a mistake in the novel. The character was supposed to turn 25 in 2000, but later on she said she was born in 1973, the year that Roe vs. Wade went into effect. She thought her mother might have wanted an abortion, since she got pregnant when she was 19. She would have been 27 in 2000 if she were born in 1973. Ms. Hen thinks that she might have forgotten how old she was because she spent all her time sleeping.

Ms. Hen realizes that this novel might not be for everyone. This book might be for the weird kids who want to know that there are other weirdoes in the world who might be as messed up as they are. The world can be a terrible place, and sometimes life might not seem worth living, but you just have to muck through the shit to be able to stand on your feet again.

Ms. Hen reviews When You Are Engulfed in Flames

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

David Sedaris

Little, Brown and Company

2008

Ms. Hen has read a David Sedaris book before, when she spent time in France. She was talked into reading ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY because a lot of it is about France. She does not read essays that much, but she enjoyed that book, so when she found this book at a Little Free Library near where she lives, she scooped it up. She thinks she might try to become a spokesperson for the Little Free Libraries, since she goes to so many and continuously finds great books to read. She would like to get paid well for doing this, so she wouldn’t have to work at a normal job.

This collection of essays reminded Ms. Hen of how strange and funny David Sedaris truly is. She thinks that if she met him, she would like him. She doesn’t think this of many writers. Ms. Hen is a strange hen herself, and she gravitates toward weirdoes, or chickens with similar types of feathers.

This collection deals with the dark side of life, but with a humorous twist. All of the essays have to do with death in one form or another. One of Ms. Hen’s favorites is “Memento Mori,” an essay about the time the author bought a genuine skeleton for his partner, and it haunted him when they hung it in the bedroom. The skeleton seemed to remind him that he was going to die. This is hilarious, but sad at the same time. Memento Mori is a Latin expression meaning remember you must die. This essay spooked Ms. Hen because she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a real skeleton in her bedroom.

Another that Ms. Hen liked is “April in Paris,” which is about the author’s obsession with spiders, and one particular spider that he adopted and fed flies to entertain himself, whom he dubbed April. They were living in Normandy, and decided to take April to Paris, but there weren’t enough flies to feed his favorite spider in the big city, so April was distressed. When they got back to Normandy, she ran off, leaving her owner upset over her disappearance. Ms. Hen thinks this is weird, but the story stuck in her head. How many people actually love spiders enough to make one into a pet and take it to Paris? Not many.

The last essay in the book, “The Smoking Section,” is the longest in the collection, and is all about the author’s history of smoking and the process of quitting. He decides to travel to Japan to stay there for a while to see if that will help him quit. Ms. Hen thinks it’s strange to quit smoking in Japan because she understands that everyone smokes there, but the author does a lot of strange things, so this does not surprise her. He writes about trying to learn Japanese and failing, and also about the Japanese mannerisms, such as humility and putting others first all the time which Ms. Hen found fascinating. He quit smoking, which Ms. Hen has learned is more difficult that stopping drinking or heroin.

Ms. Hen thinks this book is fantastic. She believes in the power of humor, and wishes there were more humorous writers that she could enjoy. Life is difficult, but why shouldn’t we laugh at ourselves? If we don’t laugh, we could end up crying, and there’s no point in that.

Ms. Hen reviews The Tiger's Wife

The Tiger’s Wife

Tea Obreht

Random House

2011

Ms. Hen picked up this novel at the Little Free Library in Downtown Crossing in Boston. She chose this because she liked the cover and the title. She had never heard of the book, but she understands it was well received when it came out, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award.

When Ms. Hen first started reading THE TIGER’S WIFE, she had the feeling that it was similar to THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING because it is about a doctor, and it has the same type of tone, and it takes place in a likewise setting. This novel, however, does not have that much more in common with that one.

This novel is about a young doctor, Natalia, in a country that is not named, but is supposed to be Bosnia. The country is recovering from war, and Natalia’s grandfather has just died. She is in a rural area vaccinating some orphans with her friend, and she goes to retrieve his things that were in his possession when he passed away suddenly in a remote area.

Natalia recounts the story of her relationship with her grandfather, and how they went to the zoo to look at the tigers, and also tell the story his life when he was young in the small town where he lived. A tiger appeared in the village one day, and frightened the people that lived there. One of the women was supposedly the tiger’s wife, because she fed him, and the people in the town thought that the tiger impregnated her.

This novel shows the superstitions of rural people, and how isolated they are from the rest of the world. Some people actually believed that the woman was married to the tiger, and the women of the town would gossip and most of the men listened and did not do much to help her.

This novel is told in layers. The stories of the different characters go back and back and at times, Ms. Hen almost lost track of who she was reading about. The people in the village, and how they got to be there, and even the story about the only gun, and how it arrived, spread around like honey on pieces of crusty bread, and never stopped, and at times left Ms. Hen breathless. This novel is an excellent example of how to write multi-layered stories, one on top of another, like a club sandwich with a tower of bread. Ms. Hen admires this writer because she does this so well; it kept Ms. Hen on her toes, and she took her time reading it, because she thinks that this novel is meant to be read slowly and ingested gently because there is so much to absorb.

There are some chickens and hens that appear in this novel, which always pleases Ms. Hen. Natalia is driving through the country with one of the monks when, “There was a henhouse which had apparently collapsed at least once in the last few years, and had been haphazardly assembled and propped up against the low stone wall…” The characters are in a run-down area ravaged by war, and they have to make do with what they have. Ms. Hen is glad that the hens are being protected during difficult times.

Ms. Hen loves finding novels that are new to her that she adores. This is one of those. There are a lot of animals and magic in this novel, which Ms. Hen enjoys. The story twists and turns until it left Ms. Hen’s head dizzy. Ms. Hen won’t think of tigers or wild animals the same again.