“My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh (post 4): She hopes sleep will cure possession and harassment by alternate personalities

“I’d wake up to find voice messages on my cell phone from salons or spas confirming appointments I’d booked in my sleep…An occasional package from Barneys or Saks provided me with men’s pajamas and other things I couldn’t remember ordering” (1, pp. 1-2).

While her host personality is asleep, alternate personalities are busy, but at least she (the host personality) does not hear their voices, as she often does when awake (see below).

“I can’t point to any one event that resulted in my decision to go into hibernation…I just wanted…to drown out my thoughts and judgments, since the constant barrage made it hard not to hate everyone and everything…” (1, pp. 17-18).

To say that her thoughts and judgments were a “constant barrage” implies she felt harassed by thoughts and judgments from alternate personalities.

“I was tall and thin and blond and pretty and young. Even at my worst, I knew I still looked good” (1, p. 27).

If the protagonist is blond, why is the cover art a portrait of a brunette? Is one of the alternate personalities a brunette?

“If I had a distinct thought, I would hear it…conversation with myself” (1, p. 39).

She was hearing the voices of alternate personalities and conversing with them.

1. Ottessa Moshfegh. My Year of Rest and Relaxation. New York, Penguin Press, 2018.