When Does "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" (2018) Take Place?
"My Year of Rest and Relaxation" is a historical fiction novel written by Ottessa Moshfegh that released July 10th, 2018. So when is "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" set?
It takes place in the years:
We know this because early on the narrator tells the reader 'I had started "hibernating" as best I could in mid-June of 2000. I was twenty-six years old. I watched summer die and autumn turn cold and gray' so it's currently late 2000 AD at the start of the story. She continues to say, "The only news I could read were the sensational headlines on the local daily papers at the bodega. I'd quickly glance at them as I paid for my coffees. Bush versus Gore for president." Texas Governor George W. Bush and United States of America Vice President Al Gore were the main candidates of the US 2000 presidential election, which ended on Tuesday, November 7th, 2000 AD. So it must be in autumn, during or just before mid November of 2000 AD.
2000 AD - 2001 AD
We know this because early on the narrator tells the reader 'I had started "hibernating" as best I could in mid-June of 2000. I was twenty-six years old. I watched summer die and autumn turn cold and gray' so it's currently late 2000 AD at the start of the story. She continues to say, "The only news I could read were the sensational headlines on the local daily papers at the bodega. I'd quickly glance at them as I paid for my coffees. Bush versus Gore for president." Texas Governor George W. Bush and United States of America Vice President Al Gore were the main candidates of the US 2000 presidential election, which ended on Tuesday, November 7th, 2000 AD. So it must be in autumn, during or just before mid November of 2000 AD.
Much later, near the very end of the book, she says "ON SEPTEMBER 11, I went out and bought a new TV/VCR at Best Buy so I could record the news coverage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers.", referring to the destruction of the New York City World Trade Center's twin towers during the famous and tragic September 11th terrorist attacks, which occurred on September 11th, 2001 AD.
