Explore the real-world places that appear in My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Upper East Side Apartment Building, Duane Reade Pharmacy, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Blockbuster Video and 8 more.
East 84th Street between Lexington & 3rd — The narrator's isolation chamber
The unnamed narrator's one-bedroom apartment becomes her cocoon for an entire year of pharmaceutical-induced sleep. She inherits this place after her parents' deaths, using her inheritance to fund her year-long hibernation project. Here she pops pills prescribed by Dr. Tuttle, watches old movies on VHS, and shuts out the world. The apartment represents both privilege and profound emptiness, filled with expensive furniture but devoid of meaningful human connection.
East 84th Street has been home to affluent New Yorkers since the late 19th century. The area developed as part of the Upper East Side's transformation from rural farmland into one of Manhattan's most prestigious residential neighborhoods.
The street remains lined with elegant pre-war apartment buildings and brownstones, home to wealthy professionals and families. Many buildings have been converted to luxury condominiums.
Lexington Avenue & 86th Street — Prescription pickup point
The narrator makes regular trips to this Duane Reade to collect her arsenal of prescription medications from Dr. Tuttle. These visits represent some of her few ventures outside her apartment during her year of rest. She picks up Infermiterol, Ativanol, and other fictional pharmaceuticals that enable her dangerous experiment in extended unconsciousness.
Duane Reade began as a single pharmacy in 1960 and expanded throughout New York City, becoming ubiquitous on street corners by the 1990s. The chain was named after the streets where the first store was located in lower Manhattan.
This location continues to operate as a Walgreens (which acquired Duane Reade in 2010), serving the Upper East Side community with pharmacy services and convenience items.
Visit: Walgreens (pharmacy)
1000 5th Avenue — Cultural escape from reality
The narrator occasionally visits the Met as one of her few approved activities during her year of isolation. She wanders the galleries in a medicated haze, finding the art both comforting and alienating. The museum represents high culture and her privileged background, yet she experiences it through a fog of pharmaceutical detachment, unable to connect meaningfully with the beauty around her.
Founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its current Fifth Avenue location in 1880. It has grown to become one of the world's largest and most prestigious art museums, with over 2 million works spanning 5,000 years.
The Met continues as one of New York's premier cultural institutions, attracting over 6 million visitors annually to its vast collection of art from around the world.
Visit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (museum)
East 85th Street entrance — Rare outdoor moments
The narrator makes occasional forays into Central Park during her year of rest, though these outings become increasingly rare as her isolation deepens. Walking through the park in her medicated state, she observes joggers, dog walkers, and families with a detached, almost anthropological perspective. The natural setting contrasts sharply with her artificial, pill-induced stupor.
Central Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in the 1850s as the first landscaped public park in the United States. It was created as a democratic space where all New Yorkers could enjoy nature and recreation.
Central Park remains Manhattan's green heart, offering 843 acres of lawns, lakes, walking paths, and recreational facilities to millions of visitors annually.
Visit: Central Park (park)
Lexington Avenue — VHS rental destination
The narrator rents VHS tapes from this Blockbuster to fuel her year-long movie marathon. She chooses films almost randomly, watching them in a medicated stupor as part of her hibernation ritual. The store represents one of her few connections to the outside world, though she interacts minimally with staff and other customers during these brief excursions from her apartment.
Blockbuster revolutionized home video rental in the 1980s and 1990s, with stores on virtually every corner in urban areas. At its peak around 2000, the company had over 8,000 stores worldwide.
This location, like most Blockbuster stores, has long since closed. The space likely houses a different retail business, as the chain went bankrupt in 2010 with the rise of streaming services.
Park Avenue — Source of dangerous prescriptions
Dr. Tuttle's Park Avenue office is where the narrator obtains the cocktail of prescription drugs that enable her year-long experiment. The elderly psychiatrist operates more like a drug dealer than a medical professional, prescribing dangerous combinations of medications without proper oversight. Their sessions are perfunctory, with Tuttle showing little interest in the narrator's actual mental health.
Park Avenue has been synonymous with prestigious medical practices since the early 20th century. Many of New York's most exclusive doctors have maintained offices along this thoroughfare, serving wealthy Manhattan residents.
Park Avenue continues to house high-end medical practices, though modern medical ethics and prescription monitoring would make Dr. Tuttle's cavalier prescribing practices impossible.
660 Madison Avenue — Reva's shopping obsession
Reva, the narrator's bulimic best friend, frequently drags her to Barneys during the early part of her hibernation year. Reva shops compulsively while the narrator observes with medicated detachment. The luxury department store represents the shallow materialism that the narrator is trying to escape through her year of rest and pharmaceutical isolation.
Barneys New York was founded in 1923 as a men's clothing store and evolved into a luxury fashion destination. The Madison Avenue flagship, which opened in 1993, became a symbol of high-end shopping culture.
The original Barneys filed for bankruptcy in 2019. The Madison Avenue location closed, though the brand continues under new ownership in a reduced form.
3rd Avenue & 79th Street — Organic sustenance
During her rare ventures outside, the narrator shops for minimal groceries at this health food store. She buys simple, organic items that require little preparation, maintaining her body just enough to continue her year-long experiment. The store's emphasis on wellness contrasts ironically with her pharmaceutical-induced lifestyle.
Health food stores proliferated in Manhattan during the 1990s as organic and natural food movements gained mainstream acceptance among affluent consumers.
This specific store likely closed or changed ownership, as small independent health food stores faced competition from chains like Whole Foods Market in the 2000s.
The Carlyle Hotel, 35 E 76th Street — Occasional drink with Reva
The narrator occasionally meets Reva at this elegant hotel bar, though these social interactions become increasingly rare as her isolation deepens. The bar's old-world sophistication contrasts with the narrator's growing detachment from social conventions. She drinks while medicated, further blurring her already hazy perception of reality.
Bemelmans Bar opened in 1947 in The Carlyle Hotel and was named after Ludwig Bemelmans, who created the famous Madeline children's books. The bar features murals painted by Bemelmans himself.
Bemelmans Bar remains one of Manhattan's most prestigious cocktail lounges, maintaining its Art Deco elegance and attracting celebrities and socialites much as it did in 2000.
Visit: Bemelmans Bar (bar)
945 Madison Avenue (former location) — American art in medicated haze
The narrator visits the Whitney's former Upper East Side location during her year of rest, viewing American art through the lens of her pharmaceutical fog. The museum's focus on contemporary American culture feels both familiar and alien to her as she drifts through the galleries in her medicated state, unable to fully engage with the works around her.
The Whitney Museum was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The Madison Avenue building, designed by Marcel Breuer, served as the museum's home from 1966 to 2014.
The building now houses The Met Breuer, a contemporary art space operated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Whitney moved to its new location in the Meatpacking District in 2015.
Visit: The Met Breuer (museum)
77th Street Station — Rare public transit
On the few occasions when the narrator ventures beyond her immediate neighborhood, she uses this subway station. The underground environment feels surreal to her in her medicated state, filled with commuters living lives she has temporarily abandoned. The subway represents connection to the broader city that she is systematically severing.
The 77th Street station opened in 1918 as part of the original IRT Lexington Avenue Line. It has served Upper East Side residents for over a century as a crucial transportation link.
The station continues to operate as part of the 4, 5, and 6 train lines, connecting the Upper East Side to the rest of Manhattan and the outer boroughs.
Visit: 77th Street Subway Station (transit)
West Village — Ex-boyfriend's downtown space
Trevor, the narrator's ex-boyfriend, lives in this West Village apartment. During her year of rest, she makes occasional visits here, though their relationship is hollow and unfulfilling. Trevor represents the kind of shallow, privileged young man the narrator is trying to escape through her hibernation. Their encounters are brief and emotionally vacant.
The West Village has been home to artists, writers, and bohemians since the early 20th century, though by 2000 it had become increasingly gentrified and expensive.
The West Village remains one of Manhattan's most desirable neighborhoods, with tree-lined streets and historic brownstones commanding premium prices.
FDR Drive & East 81st Street — Riverside contemplation
During one of her rare walks, the narrator crosses this pedestrian bridge over the FDR Drive to reach the East River waterfront. The bridge offers a view of the water and Queens beyond, providing a moment of contemplation during her year of pharmaceutical isolation. The crossing represents one of the few times she ventures to the very edge of Manhattan island.
The bridge was built in the 1930s as part of the FDR Drive construction project, connecting the Upper East Side to the waterfront recreational areas along the East River.
The bridge continues to provide pedestrian access to the East River Esplanade and Carl Schurz Park, offering residents and visitors scenic views of the river and outer boroughs.
Visit: East River Esplanade (park)
More by Ottessa Moshfegh: Eileen locations map · All Ottessa Moshfegh books
More novels set in New York City: Browse all New York City books on Map A Story
Other nearby maps: Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom by Kristin van Ogtrop locations map · The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson locations map · Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid locations map · How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell locations map