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The New Me
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A biting satire of the false promise of reinvention, by a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and Granta Best Young American Novelist
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 almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat ...more
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 almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat ...more
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lauren
Absolutely not. The self-loathing is palpable but not to the extremes that are reached in Eileen.
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if u are also kind of a pretentious, bitter person who is unenthusiastic about the mundanity of adulthood u might want to read this. it was strangely cathartic but also very upsetting at the same time. it made me feel like trash and i liked it.
(4.5) When I first heard about The New Me – the plot (the life and times of a misanthropic young woman who ‘oscillates wildly between self-recrimination and mild delusion’), the blurb from Catherine Lacey proclaiming it ‘a dark comedy of female rage’ – I instantly thought ‘this sounds like an Ottessa Moshfegh novel’. And I wasn’t wrong: after all, the protagonist says things like I get into bed... longing for someone to talk to, or longing for no one to ever look at me or talk to me ever again.
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Yeah, having to work sucks. Bosses suck. Having to pay the rent sucks. And reading nothing else for 200 pages is just, well, boring.
1.5*
1.5*
First place ‘prize-of-the-year’, for the most critical- cynical - inner voice - nagging voice - with repetitive destructive thoughts towards herself and others goes to 30-year-old
*Millie*.
It’s easy to see Millie as pathetic....a woman with low self esteem- angry at the world - depressed - she’s smarter than most - educated - bitter - teetering between feelings of self hatred without motivation to change - and wishing she wasn’t alone - wanting somebody to notice that she could actually be a gr ...more
*Millie*.
It’s easy to see Millie as pathetic....a woman with low self esteem- angry at the world - depressed - she’s smarter than most - educated - bitter - teetering between feelings of self hatred without motivation to change - and wishing she wasn’t alone - wanting somebody to notice that she could actually be a gr ...more
Misanthropic Millie is the main character in Halle Butlers debut novel, The New Me. If you are a fan of Ottessa Moshfeghs work then you'll likely enjoy this one. I'm sure there will be some readers that wonder what the point of this book is. I, personally, love snarky humor so it was bound to be a win for me.
Mille is 30 years old and lives alone in NYC. She separated with her boyfriend of 4 years over a year ago and has yet to be touched since. She works at a temp job she hates with people she ...more
Mille is 30 years old and lives alone in NYC. She separated with her boyfriend of 4 years over a year ago and has yet to be touched since. She works at a temp job she hates with people she ...more
The New Me is a claustrophobic and brilliant novel that takes a good long look at what's on offer to millenials these days and tears open the relentless yammering maw of "if you just try, you can do it/tomorrow is another day/just eat better, exercise more/try meditation/just do one small thing and change your life!" to show that it's just noise and, at the end of it all, past the self-help, self-care, and "adulting" is just you and who you are.
And that is usually, according to the notions of b ...more
And that is usually, according to the notions of b ...more
Office temping jobs are unfulfilling, beyond boring and deeply depressing – who knew?! Working in a call centre is worse! Whaaa….?! It’s almost like Halle Butler’s stating the bleeding obvious while having an extended moan about her own crappy life and trying to pass it all off as a literary novel! But that would mean she’s a hack and The New Me isn’t worth reading? Now who’s stating the bleeding obvious!
It’s beyond me how books like this get published to begin with. Butler’s first effort is ama ...more
It’s beyond me how books like this get published to begin with. Butler’s first effort is ama ...more
There’s a lot of grumbling misery going on in this book and I’m here for it. Stuck in a rut job, in a rut life Millie can’t seem to feel any joy at all, life is one mundane chore after another and work being the biggest burden of all. In and out of temp office jobs, her personal life is almost non existent and the one friend she has, she has mostly contempt for. The beauty of this book is how clever the author is at depicting the inner rage and disdain of working meaningless jobs and the soul de
...more
Give me a disaffected, apathetic, embittered female protagonist in a dead end job having an existential crisis about the meaning of life and I’m yours. Butler, I salute you. This has a strong My Year of Rest and Relaxation vibe which is a very good thing.
‘I try to assess the things that bring me pleasure, and how those things might bring me a fulfilling career. I think about how I spend my time. Where my interests lie. The questions come naturally, as if supplied by the ether, and the answer sit ...more
‘I try to assess the things that bring me pleasure, and how those things might bring me a fulfilling career. I think about how I spend my time. Where my interests lie. The questions come naturally, as if supplied by the ether, and the answer sit ...more
My review for the Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifest...
At its worst, the doctrine of self-improvement can be dehumanizing — pressuring individuals to treat themselves like products or apps perpetually in need of touch-ups or updates, the better to accommodate themselves to a fast-paced, mechanized and alienating world. In her short, satirical and cautionary second novel, “The New Me,” Halle Butler explores self-improvement at its absolute, impractical, soul-crushing worst.
A 2 ...more
At its worst, the doctrine of self-improvement can be dehumanizing — pressuring individuals to treat themselves like products or apps perpetually in need of touch-ups or updates, the better to accommodate themselves to a fast-paced, mechanized and alienating world. In her short, satirical and cautionary second novel, “The New Me,” Halle Butler explores self-improvement at its absolute, impractical, soul-crushing worst.
A 2 ...more
There's this whole microgenre now, the "lazy millennial", of millenials (mostly women?) who live in big cities, hate their jobs, and are lonely and unsatisfied. It seems to be like extensions of the TV series Girls, except generally they have actually managed to alienate their friends (which seemed like it should have happened in Girls too, but I digress).
I generally don't enjoy these types of novels, since they don't usually end up in a different place than they started, the protagonists tend t ...more
I generally don't enjoy these types of novels, since they don't usually end up in a different place than they started, the protagonists tend t ...more
This book careened between two stars and four stars at various points for me, and I spent the first several chapters thinking it was just a poor man’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. But in the back half, it becomes a more textured and compassionate portrait of millennial burnout (or maybe just burnout? is it generational? maybe in some ways, but the book also seems to be making the case that deadening malaise is a fairly prevalent condition of the modern age). It might be a bit too nihilistic f
...more
"Karen, the senior receptionist, and technically my supervisor, smiles at me like I can't tell she's faking, and says 'Hi, Maddie' and I say 'Hi!' but that's not my name. It's Millie, not Maddie. I want to go up to her and prostrate myself on her desk, my ribs activating her ****** gold stapler, the one I know she loves so much, over and over, by thrashing, sending staples all over her desk, while I explain to her the difference between Mildred and Madison . . ." -- Millie (not Maddie!), on page
...more
She seems to be showing me how to use a paper clip. She holds it in her hands, demonstrating both the right and the wrong way.
With the grubbiness of Eileen and the millennial malaise of My Year of Rest and Relaxation this seems to be channeling Moshfegh in its smart exposé of meaninglessness. The sharp and snappy writing is what I wanted from Sally Rooney but somehow didn't get.
Following Millie's ennui from daily commute to dispiriting low-level corporate jobs to friendless evenings with an ...more
I wish I could read a new Halle Butler book every day.
If you've ever sat and wondered why it is your friends seem to have the impression that you need a lot of help and constructive advice when internally, you really think you're doing fine, this is the book for you. If you've ever had a soul-deadening job that's truly your best prospect right now and your goals have been reduced to a fuzzy concept of maybe being happy at work one day, this book is for you. I live in the suburbs of a big city, not the actual big city, but I love this book because i
...more
This one is a tough one to rate. On the one hand, it's a blisteringly fast read, the kind that gives you paper cuts (metaphorically). Millie is all of us who entered the workforce during the recession or just after, all of us millennial who are so often mocked for all of our 'problems'. I don't want to associate with her, but I do. I don't want to think she's a bad person, because I also see myself in her -- and yet, it's like "get your shit together!"
So the book is a good book, told interestin ...more
So the book is a good book, told interestin ...more
I wouldn't exactly call The New Me shocking or even particularly unique. Maybe it's just where I'm from. I live in a gig economy where people change their jobs more often than they change their table cloths, and moving aimlessly from one temp job to the next in trippy, mindless repetition is just part of being Nova Scotian (unless you're a student like me, in which case you go to the same classes over and over again, travelling through the woods on a bus and hoping you'll one day get a white-col
...more
DNF. Too much privilege. It’s like an angsty story the rich white kids in your college creative writing class wrote.
Umm okay, but what was The Point™? To me, this tried to do what Ottessa Moshfegh does really well in her books — throwing you right into the mind of an entirely unlikable, self-loathing person, making you listen to their bleak, repetitive thought spirals and then, surprisingly, remarkably, twisting it into something that completely sucks you in and makes you empathise with the protagonist without you even realising it. I think this is what Halle Butler was aiming at with this, but it didn't work
...more
4.5 Stars
If you like character-driven novels then "The New Me" by Halle Butler is the perfect read for you. I have a love/hate relationship with these types of books. But this time around, I felt kind of indifferent and torn. Part of me liked Millie, even though she's a whiny, insecure, and neurotic mess. What makes Millie so appealing (despite her many flaws) was her relatability. I think most modern women have a negative inner-monologue that never stops throughout the course of a day. I know I've felt
...more
This was bleak and boring! Nothing noteworthy happened in this book. Another novel about a millennial who doesn't know what to do with her life, can't keep a job and spends her time drinking or/ and letting other people walk over her.
Compared to "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine", "My Year of Rest and Relaxation", and "Convenience Store Woman", this book was just meh.
Compared to "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine", "My Year of Rest and Relaxation", and "Convenience Store Woman", this book was just meh.
This was........vicious
A quote on the back cover of ‘The New Me’ states that ‘Certain sentences are liable to give the reader a paper cut’. I think this underplays the effect of the writing. For me, reading it was more like the feeling of doing the washing up after midnight, just before bed, in a soft sleepy state, rinsing an empty can, forgetting the sharp edges, and looking down to suddenly realise you’ve sliced your hand open. I had that sensation when reading this part:
You can’t ask someone to help you without let...more
“I get socked in the chest, thinking about how things never change. How they’re on a slow-rolling slope downward, and you can think up a long list of things you’d rather do, but because of some kind of inertia, or hard facts about who you are and what life is, you always end up back where you started, sitting drunk on a hard, sticky chair with someone you hate.”
I could read endless books about disaffected young women navigating the absurdities of modern life, so maybe a little biased, but I love ...more
I could read endless books about disaffected young women navigating the absurdities of modern life, so maybe a little biased, but I love ...more
The New Me had me laughing out loud as I sampled the first chapter and a half in a bookstore. Obviously I bought it and I'm glad I did because it's my favorite release of 2019 so far. I love novels about disaffected young women with a scathing POV on contemporary life. If you feel strange and out of place in the modern world, it's nice to have something you can identify with and go, Oh, that's so me. For me, The New Me was such a book. Halle Butler's novel is painful, funny, and true. It should
...more
I’d like to think I have my shit together. And I do, for the most part. But that wasn’t always the case; far from it, in fact. I know I’m not alone here, that my story isn’t special or unique. I am not some delicate snowflake begging for sympathy. Truth be told the majority of us had to go from, well, not having their shit together, to having their shit together (provided said shit has been, for lack of a better term, composed).
You’re probably thinking: where is this buffoon going with this? I ...more
You’re probably thinking: where is this buffoon going with this? I ...more
I think I really liked this??? A fascinating character study and commentary on the monotony and relentlessness of working the 9 till 5. Deeply honest and at times makes for quite an uncomfortable read? Anyway, I tore through this. Givin her a big ol thumbs up!!!
I once confided in a friend about this fear of mine: that someday loneliness and the state of being alone would somehow switch places overnight — the former smothering the latter in my safe sleep — interrupting the tranquil music of my own solitude.
Such seems the case of Millie, the blithe protagonist of Halle Butler’s novel The New Me, who tries her very best to endure the monotonous life of a thirtysomething; her accidental disappointments as a temp worker; her one-sided friendship with a sel ...more
Such seems the case of Millie, the blithe protagonist of Halle Butler’s novel The New Me, who tries her very best to endure the monotonous life of a thirtysomething; her accidental disappointments as a temp worker; her one-sided friendship with a sel ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Mt. Lebanon Publi...: The New Me by Halle Butler | 1 | 9 | Jun 11, 2019 03:36PM |
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“You can’t ask someone to help you without letting them know you’re different than advertised, that you’ve been thinking and feeling strange things this whole time. That you’re uglier, weaker, more annoying, more basic, less interesting than promised. Without letting on that your feelings are easily hurt, and that you are boring, just like everyone else.”
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“I laughed when she said “utilize” and she said “what?” and I said “just utilize, it’s a meaningless word” and then she tried to tell me that it “communicated” something different from the word “use” and the way she looked at me, chuckling, glancing over at James like “oh, how sweet, it tried to talk,” made me so mad that I might have said, maybe, something along the lines of “yeah, it communicates something, it’s a real first-gen-college-grad kind of word, like your parents are small-town conservative Christians who didn’t have any books in the house, and you’re self-conscious about your upbringing so you want to stand out by using elitist intellectual language, but you don’t actually know any long words, so you just truss up the word ‘use’ for no fucking reason other than to try to make people feel like you’re the one with the big mental dick, even though ‘utilize’ is basically just administrative jargon and completely déclassé to them that knows.”
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