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Publisher Description
A “vividly, chillingly current” (The Washington Post) novel by the author of The New Me, one of the boldest voices in American fiction
“So searingly precise in [its] ability to capture a certain moment or experience that you have to stop every few pages to send another perfect quote to your group chat.”—The New York Times
“So funny, so smart, utterly vicious—just brilliant.”—Zadie Smith
“Butler has crafted a novel in which every character proves to be completely, uniquely crazy. Her perverse sense of humor should be studied and celebrated.”—David Sedaris
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Margaret Anne “Moddie” Yance had just returned to her native land in the Midwestern town of X, to mingle with the friends of her youth, to get back in touch with her roots, and to recover from a stressful decade of living in the city in a small apartment with a man she now believed to be a megalomaniac or perhaps a covert narcissist.
So begins Halle Butler’s sadistically precise and hilarious Banal Nightmare, which follows Moddie as she abruptly ends her long-term relationship and moves back to her hometown, throwing herself at the mercy of her old friends as they, all suddenly tipping toward middle age, go to parties, size each other up, obsess over past slights, dream of wild triumphs, and indulge in elaborate revenge fantasies. When her friend Pam invites a mysterious East Coast artist to take up a winter residency at the local university, Moddie has no choice but to confront the demons of her past and grapple with the reality of what her life has become. As the day of reckoning approaches, friends will become enemies, enemies will become mortal enemies, and old loyalties will be tested to their extreme.
Banal Nightmare is filled with complicated characters who will dazzle you in their rendering just as often as they will infuriate you with their decisions. Halle Butler singularly captures the volatile, angry, aggrieved, surreal, and entirely disorienting atmosphere of the modern era.
“So searingly precise in [its] ability to capture a certain moment or experience that you have to stop every few pages to send another perfect quote to your group chat.”—The New York Times
“So funny, so smart, utterly vicious—just brilliant.”—Zadie Smith
“Butler has crafted a novel in which every character proves to be completely, uniquely crazy. Her perverse sense of humor should be studied and celebrated.”—David Sedaris
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Margaret Anne “Moddie” Yance had just returned to her native land in the Midwestern town of X, to mingle with the friends of her youth, to get back in touch with her roots, and to recover from a stressful decade of living in the city in a small apartment with a man she now believed to be a megalomaniac or perhaps a covert narcissist.
So begins Halle Butler’s sadistically precise and hilarious Banal Nightmare, which follows Moddie as she abruptly ends her long-term relationship and moves back to her hometown, throwing herself at the mercy of her old friends as they, all suddenly tipping toward middle age, go to parties, size each other up, obsess over past slights, dream of wild triumphs, and indulge in elaborate revenge fantasies. When her friend Pam invites a mysterious East Coast artist to take up a winter residency at the local university, Moddie has no choice but to confront the demons of her past and grapple with the reality of what her life has become. As the day of reckoning approaches, friends will become enemies, enemies will become mortal enemies, and old loyalties will be tested to their extreme.
Banal Nightmare is filled with complicated characters who will dazzle you in their rendering just as often as they will infuriate you with their decisions. Halle Butler singularly captures the volatile, angry, aggrieved, surreal, and entirely disorienting atmosphere of the modern era.
160 Reviews
3.0
September29th
Created 5 days agoShare
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“Walked into a bookstore earlier this year, fell in love with the book jacket and then regretted my impulsive ways. I found every character in this book unlikable… which isn’t something I need to have in an immersive reading, but there’s so many horrible qualities I saw within the characters thought processes that reminded me of myself. It’s the same reason I can’t watch Curb Your Enthusiasm because I see to much of Larry David in myself.”aga
Created 6 days agoShare
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“i dont know if it's because i read this book at a bad time or if it's the book but reading this felt like a chore.
yes i know you can dnf a book but i held on, hoping it would get better. it didn't.
the chapter lengths were all over the place, there's a protagonist but suddently i'm knee deep into the lives of some other people? i don't get it, i don't want to get it, i wanted to follow one character not 10 who have such similar traits and names i can't tell who's who
i hate saying all these things because i thought Banal Nightmare was going to be so good! it looked like it was going to be so good, great cover, intriguing title, pretty catchy blurb, and yet ..”
Rinnnnnn
Created 9 days agoShare
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Ant
Created 11 days agoShare
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“A shortened version may have done better, great start with interesting characters - drags a bit at the end.”
About Halle Butler
Halle Butler’s first novel, Jillian, was called the “feel-bad book of the year” by the Chicago Tribune. Her second novel, The New Me, was named a Best Book of the Decade by Vox and a Best Book of the Year by Vanity Fair, Vulture, the Chicago Tribune, Mashable, Bustle, and NPR, and the New Yorker called it a “definitive work of millennial literature.” She was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree.
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