“[A] definitive work of millennial literature . . . wretchedly riveting.” —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker “Girls + Office Space + My Year of Rest and Relaxation + anxious sweating = The New Me.” —Entertainment Weekly I’m still trying to make the dream possible: still might finish my cleaning project, still might sign up for that yoga class, still might, still might. I step into the shower and … sign up for that yoga class, still might, still might. I step into the shower and almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat and bashing its head against the wall floating in my mind.
Thirty-year-old Millie just can’t pull it together. She spends her days working a thankless temp job and her nights alone in her apartment, fixating on all the ways she might change her situation–her job, her attitude, her appearance, her life. Then she watches TV until she falls asleep, and the cycle begins again.
When the possibility of a full-time job offer arises, it seems to bring the better life she’s envisioning within reach. But with it also comes the paralyzing realization, lurking just beneath the surface, of how hollow that vision has become.
“Wretchedly riveting” (The New Yorker) and “masterfully cringe-inducing” (Chicago Tribune), The New Me is the must-read new novel by National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree and Granta Best Young American novelist Halle Butler.
Named a Best Book of the Decade by Vox, and a Best Book of 2019 by Vanity Fair, Vulture, Chicago Tribune, Mashable, Bustle, and NPR
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The New Me renders contemporary American life in such vivid, stinging color that certain sentences are liable to give the reader a paper cut. But you’ll want to keep on reading anyway. Halle Butler is terrific, and I loved this book.
Halle Butler does a good job of catching (in my opinion) the very essence of dissatisfaction/unhappiness in the average person’s life. In Millie we find ourselves (or at least most of us) not going anywhere or not getting there fast enough and being unhappy with who we are and where we are (the story revolves around the work place) inside or outside of the work place. We become complacent with where we are wanting more, yet afraid to go after it. We may attempting to go after it, then thinking we aren’t good enough. Some will achieve those goals and still feel as if they have not moved from the dissatisfaction.
Moving from day to day with no goal or worthwhile purpose. Millie, like most of us is doing the best she can to be the best she can under difficult circumstances.
Halle also does a great job of moving the reader through the same emotional rollercoaster Millie rides from hitting the stratosphere of hoping for the best to the plunge downward of hopelessness and back again.
My come away from the story, reminds me that being happy with who you are and where you are is something you find inside, not from outside. Something else the story reminds of is something my mom use to say to me “remember that having is not always as pleasing as wanting”.
A dark comedy of female rage. Halle Butler is a first-rate satirist of the horror show being sold to us as Modern Femininity. She is Thomas Bernhard in a bad mood, showing us the futility of betterment in an increasingly paranoid era of self-improvement. Hilarious.
The New Me is a bouncy, profane, highly addictive novel about work, female friendship, and other alienations. Halle Butler’s insane talent shimmers on every page of this deadpan misanthrope’s ode. A must-read!
Halle Butler has a way of looking at our twenty-first-century neoliberalist condition that simultaneously exposes its brutality and renders that same brutality absurd, hilarious, fizzy with humor. She’s an incisive, curmudgeonly bard of the uniquely precarious times we live in, and it is crucial that you read her immediately.
A bleak and brutal book that exposes a nearly unbearable futility to life in the workforce, not to mention life outside it. Butler’s vision is funny and raw and dark — a cautionary tale, hilarious and intimate, against growing up and making do.
Sadly disturbing
Negative, snarky protagonist. If you like whiny, critical, unhappy characters, go for it. The title implies a change, which may occur. However, I couldn’t make myself read all of it. I’ve got to be intrested in the character before I care. Complete turnoff.
Wit was awful!
Sad and anxiety raising.
Total waste of time!
Silly.
Unlikable characters, unengaging plot. Truly terrible.
The author did an astounding job at creating a character that I loathed. I interpreted the main character (Millie) as being severely depressed, and possibly on the autism spectrum. The story was so well written that it made me feel depressed while reading the book. I wanted to scream at her to get help. However, there were many moments where I appreciated Millie’s spot-on perspective on other people’s actions and motivations. I gave this book 4 stars only because it made me feel ill while reading it, but it actually deserves 5 stars because of the author’s effective writing.
I thought it was one of the worst books I have ever read.
Waste of money and time. The author reads it with such an attitude I complimentary to anyone. I don’t wish to be with people like that, nor read about them!