My year of rest and relaxation

[Anonymous No.21658808]

I saw this book recommended on an instagram reel and decided to give it a go. I am about a third of the way through this and not enjoying it at all. Should I drop it?

I have begun to branch off into more contemporary literature, but so far this seems insufferable. Having made some progress through the traditional must reads, I was hoping to find something relatable or inspiring, but so far it seems like typical MFA NYC lifestyle trash.

Any /lit/ approved contemporary authors?

[Anonymous No.21658827]

>>21658808
The fuck is MFA

[Anonymous No.21658843]

>>21658827
>MFA
Master of Fine Arts. A degree where people are taught how to write. The author did hers at browns according to wiki.

[Anonymous No.21659557]

>>21658808
>I have begun to branch off into more contemporary literature
why?

[Anonymous No.21660146]

>>21658808
You are retarded.

[Anonymous No.21660157]

It's only good if you have never read a real book and your baseline frame of reference for good writing is tweets and the occasional blog. It's for very disgusting people who, hopefully, will be put in concentration camps soon.

[Anonymous No.21660207]

I like contemporary horror, like Paul Tremblay, Jeff VanderMeer and MR Carey. I’ve been meaning to read Mary by Nat Cassidy soon as well. I can’t really speak towards other contemporary work that isn’t genre though. Maybe check out that Emma books or whatever YouTuber (unironic). She’s pretty widely read for a booktuber and her taste seems alright, iirc she also shared your opinion that MYORAR was insufferable.

[Anonymous No.21660834]

>>21659557
>not trying to read works from various generations to broaden your worldview

Why?

[Anonymous No.21660843]

>>21658808
forget this blue blooded bitchoid shitass and put a real book in your hands and feel merry

[Anonymous No.21660852]

>I saw this book recommended on an instagram reel and decided to give it a go

[Anonymous No.21660909]

>>21658808
I'd read some of her short stories as they came up on the rags I ripped from newsstands, they seemed interesting enough. But that excerpt some anon posted about the typical hipster art/lit enthusiasts she bedded and dreaded verged too far into current year politics, seemingly moralizing the lack of diversity while demonizing the pasty, scarf-wearing, beer-gutted art gluttons with whom she built her reputation.
I believe a lasting writer should rise above such derogatory categorizing; but, I've been rereading a lot of Flaubert lately and see a lot of the same vituperative ire cast against the lower classes he melded with his artistic vision.
And I've realized that the reason I fell off from the artsy, literary group I used to ingratiate myself with in university was not because I could see through the thin veil of reputability into their own dark conscience but because I always put myself in their shoes and wondered how I would react to their situation if I had suddenly found myself in their shoes.
So the skinny willing bisexual; his submissive latin manhole; the beta cuck orbiter; the affluent, fat arthoe; the serious thinker; the down-to-earth, Twain-obsessed good-time gal; the leaching, borrowing miser; the hearty, well-read english boy; the ironic joker with the guitar; the tall, handsome, lanky self-taught painter that would write op-eds on trashy b-movie stars and who stole my crush; they all became fodder for my pen, and I stole from, and gifted them, a vast network of neuroses that built a strange mythology in my memory.

[Anonymous No.21661062]

>>21658808
If you're not enjoying it, stop, but I thought the middle section where she goes to the funeral was really well done. There's also a plot twist. Unfortunately the last chapter drops the ball pretty badly.

[Anonymous No.21661095]

>>21660852
Instagram is dope. It's the least cancerous of all the social media. I've been on there for many years and I rarely if ever see thottery, lots of photography and visual arts with a bit of comedy and tons of ads for industrial electrical components for some reason

[Anonymous No.21661099]

>>21660909
K, keep us posted

[Anonymous No.21661103]

>>21658808
ditch it and resume sometime later if you feel like it

[Anonymous No.21661468]

>>21660146
why?

[Anonymous No.21661488]

I like Modiano, Houellebecq and Delibes (died only 10 years ago).

[Anonymous No.21662369]

>>21661488
Modiano! I really wouldn't have bothered if it weren't for the nobel, but that one book he keeps on writing really is super. What's your favourite?

[Anonymous No.21662419]

>>21661095
Fuck off

[Anonymous No.21662422]

What exactly do you not like about it OP?

[Anonymous No.21662803]

>>21658808
i read this cunt's other book and it was an atrocity. it's nothing but cheap shock value trying to posture as avante garde with neither skills nor worthwhile thoughts. she's also a hideous jewish gargoyle.

[Anonymous No.21663229]

>>21658827
Shorthand for fiction in the style that is typically taught in college creative writing classes.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n18/elif-batuman/get-a-real-degree

[Anonymous No.21663249]

>>21662803
When has she ever attempted to be "avante garde"? She's a straightforward storyteller and would be the first to admit it.

[Anonymous No.21663408]

>>21663229
Isn't the point with Moshfegh that her MFA led her to the prize-nominated (shit) and unsuccessful McGlue, and then she actually got readable by a) using a dimestore "write a bestseller" self help book b) tricking Gordon Lish into coaching her by dangling the 'ol meat curtains tantalizingly close

[Anonymous No.21663626]

>>21662803
She was hot enough in college. Her claim to fame was being dicked by Philip Roth when he was geriatric.

[Anonymous No.21663644]

>>21660909
the problem with young people trying to write literature is exactly this, they all come from the same boring milieu and have no other material to work with

[Anonymous No.21664788]

>>21663408
No, she is trying to sell a fable of herself as a struggling artist with that story. She writes in the style of Plath's The Bell Jar, which is all the rage the last five years. Unsympathetic female leads, who typically come from wealth and construct their own troubles, who have poorly written redemption arcs at the end. She is coasting on a hungry genre, sure, but it is her natural genre. Don't trust these clever stories of success, like "I read a self-help book and wrote trash and people read it then because I'm special and other people like trash, but not me."

She writes mediocre litfic and is in good company with Rooney and other hacks.

[Anonymous No.21664797]

>>21663249
Straightforward storytelling is a compliment to be levelled by others at ones work, not something you can "admit to". That's like "admitting" to being a super cool awesome person. She write crappy litfic.

[Anonymous No.21664808]

>>21660207
>I like contemporary horror
If you haven't already, you should check out F Gardner. I have a few classics under his belt in this genre.

[Anonymous No.21665519]

>>21664808
/thread. F Gardner’s books are the crem de le crem of indie horror available and better than almost all mainstream books in the genre.

[Anonymous No.21665637]

>>21658808
Well I've seen a good review in the newspaper and if 4ch hates it it can't be that bad

[Anonymous No.21666318]

>>21660834
Why not just read authors from different culture?

[Anonymous No.21666995]

>>21658843
This book was written by someone whose entire profession was writing.
Holy fuck, literature is over.

[Anonymous No.21667123]

>>21666995
This is a thing, but at least she doesn't also write exclusively about people on MFA courses. I'd much rather read Moshy going on about TV and painkillers than someone like Sigrid Nunez who not only has no life experience outside creative writing, she can't even bring herself to create a story that isn't about creative writing programmes.

[Anonymous No.21667136]

>>21661095
>no you see it's actually good I have ass cancer because it's not as bad as brain cancer