Liza Achilles - Writer | Editor
  • Home
  • About
  • Bio
  • Publications
  • Awards
  • Tips
  • Contact
Home
About
Bio
Publications
Awards
Tips
Contact
Liza Achilles - Writer | Editor
  • Home
  • About
  • Bio
  • Publications
  • Awards
  • Tips
  • Contact
Readings

Let’s Take the Easy Route

February 6, 2019 by Liza Achilles 1 Comment

looking up at a tall bookshelf with old booksI recently discovered a very cool chain of restaurants that are also bookstores in Washington, D.C. While in the city for another reason, I popped into one of the locations to check it out. As promised, the entrance of the restaurant was a little bookshop!

Delighted, I began to scan the book titles, pick out a few of them, and flip through the pages. However, this seemingly simple task was not very simple in regard to all of the books in the little lobby area. The fiction was arranged on a tall and thin bookshelf, and the top two shelves were beyond my reach. No ladder was in sight. As a writer of fiction with a last name beginning with A, I felt empathetic toward those poor beginning-of-the-alphabet authors whose books were languishing up there.

I could have taken the hard route. I could have tracked down an employee and requested access. But I was just browsing, not requesting a particular book. I didn’t want to ask an employee to bring me down all of them, or even some of them, only to promptly ask for them to be put back, or (worse) buy them out of guilt.

So I took the easy route. I browsed through only the middle- and end-of-the-alphabet authors’ books, ultimately buying the novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.

This is a book about taking the easy route.

The protagonist, in response to distressing experiences and events both relatively recent and long ago, decides to gift herself what she calls her “year of rest and relaxation.” Her idea of rest and relaxation is taking enough psychotropic drugs to sleep away as many hours of her life as possible. She has the resources to do this, due to both an inheritance and, as the book jacket puts it, “one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature.”

This is a very funny book. The protagonist’s perspective and ideas are so wild that they shocked me into laughter many times. Other times, they shocked me into sadness as I had realizations about the nature of upsetting experiences, the long fallout of inadequate support during childhood, and how people cope in less-than-ideal circumstances. I was never sure whether to admire the protagonist’s resilience, or recoil from her careless and flippant attitude toward herself and others.

Sometimes, the author seems to be saying, we protect ourselves from the difficulties of the hard route . . . by working very hard to take the easy route. But it’s interesting that the protagonist sets a limit on the easy route. She commits to transitioning back to the hard route after one year. She seems to intuitively know that she needs to escape into sleep for a very long time . . . but not forever. I’ll let you read the book to learn how the plan works out for her. (It’s a page-turner, from start to finish!)

Are you taking the easy route in some aspect of your life? Do you have plans to transition to the hard route?

Share:
Reading time: 2 min

Search This Site

About Me

photo of Liza Achilles Hello! My name is Liza Achilles. I live in the Washington, D.C., metro area. By day, I write and edit. By night,—well, I used to write and edit. That didn't work out too well. And so now, by night—and I'm truly grateful for this—I sleep.

Get Posts by Email

I invite you to view the Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.

You're almost done! Confirm your subscription by checking your inbox (or spam folder) and clicking the link.

Recent Posts

  • One or Two Values February 18, 2019
  • You Shouldn’t Be Ashamed February 15, 2019
  • What Research Says About Courage February 13, 2019
  • One and Only February 11, 2019
  • Sleep February 8, 2019

Posts by Month

  • February 2019 (8)
  • January 2019 (13)
  • December 2018 (13)
  • November 2018 (13)
  • October 2018 (14)
  • September 2018 (12)
  • August 2018 (14)
  • July 2018 (13)
  • June 2018 (13)
  • May 2018 (6)
  • April 2018 (2)

Posts by Category

  • Language (24)
  • News (7)
  • Readings (41)
  • Tales (17)
  • Visuals (18)
  • Whimsies (14)

Posts by Book

Dare to Lead Brené Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Émile Zola
The World Beyond Your Head Matthew B. Crawford
All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld
Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston
Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
JavaScript & jQuery Jon Duckett
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
The Weather Detective Peter Wohlleben
Play It As It Lays Joan Didion
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson
Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata
Perfect Me Heather Widdows
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace Patty Yumi Cottrell
Why Buddhism Is True Robert Wright
What Is Real? Adam Becker
Kudos Rachel Cusk
The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante
F*cked Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Alan Lightman
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf

Tags

alcohol anxiety A Room of One's Own art books bookstores Brené Brown children computers cooking David Foster Wallace drugs Elena Ferrante etymology family feminism food friends gender health heat history Infinite Jest judgments love mind mysteries philosophy politics psychology publishing reading running self sleep society stars sun the inquisitive one titles Virginia Woolf wisdom women work writing

The Twitterverse

Tweets by LizaAchilles

Explore This Site

View the next page, ABOUT→

Get Blog Posts by Email

envelope with mail icon          Subscribe to the newsletter.

Don’t Be Shy

comment bubble icon          Comment on a blog post.
envelope icon          Send me a private note.

Let’s Connect on Social Media

Twitter iconView my Twitter page @LizaAchilles.
Instagram iconView my Instagram page.
LinkedIn iconView my LinkedIn profile.
© 2018–2019 Liza Achilles | Privacy Policy (US) | Privacy Policy (EU) | Cookie Policy (US) | Cookie Policy (EU) | Disclaimer | Thanks for visiting my website today!