My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh (4/10) - no spoilers

Ok although I read a fair amount, I mostly stick to reviews of music and movies unless something super exceeds or disappoints my expectations (see post about chocobanana). I am posting this particular book review to say I DONT KNOW WHY EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM HAS BEEN HYPING THIS. This book, along with the Sally Rooney novels and maybe The Idiot has overtaken the ~trendy~ literary scene over the few years since it came out in 2018 and Moshfegh rose to fame. The protagonist, whose first-person perspective we get, is quite a mean, cynical, disillusioned, unlikeable protagonist - which is what people like about the book I think. She hates the world and everyone in it, and while she does make some very astute and comical observations that tap into even my quotidian annoyances, she is so fucking fatphobic and racist and ableist that my actual distaste overtook everything else in the book. I am mostly posting this to say that^. She has random hatred for and a need to say the race of every non-white character in the novel, and her fixation on weight and her own beauty as well as the weight and beauty of others made even me, as a reader, insecure lol. I get that it's trying to portray like real honest thoughts of rich, wealthy white women - but I found it honestly horrifying. The writing is not half bad but I spent the majority of the book questioning why I wanted to be in the mind of a woman who would probably hate my existence as a qtpoc. I know a few writers have written op-eds critiquing her but I truly can't believe how famous she has gotten and just how popular this book is. It's a NYT Bestseller!! Jeez louise.  

Edit: Okay I have looked more into it; this is the op-ed I was mentioning, and seems to be the most viral take-down of Moshfegh. It's about her as a writer but mostly is a discussion of Moshfegh's book Lapvona. I wish there was more discussion/critiques around this book and her ableism/racism (that op-ed discusses her fat phobia)!