The New Me

A short novel of the modern, everyday experience. An educated woman, with every advantage, lives and works in Chicago. She is lost, adrift. Her life seems pointless and lacking meaning. She is installed as a temp at a design firm where she does not seem to get along with her coworkers or have any ambition to climb higher in the company. In fact, she seems to have deluded herself that she is the victim here. A chance at being made permanent at the company sparks a half-assed attempt at cleaning up her act. Millie reminded me very much of Eileen from [b:Eileen 23453099 Eileen Ottessa Moshfegh https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479545528s/23453099.jpg 43014905], if Eileen had grown up with loving parents. The funny part is that we meet other characters in chapters and they are not any happier or more fulfilled than Millie. It is a book about people so in tune with their selves, so very concerned with their own feelings, that they cannot move beyond that. I read it as a warning. To whom, I am not sure. I have a personal rule that one cannot blame one's parents for anything that is going on in one's life after the age of 30. Millie does not blame her parents. She doesn't blame anyone. She just lets life roll over her like a plane flying overhead. She's completely disconnected. I found her frustrating and entirely fascinating at the same time. She doesn't know how to save herself, and no one is jumping in there to do it for her.I want to read more from Butler.