A Man With An Agenda

Another fine Penguin original, buy one from your local bookseller this Tuesday!

Millie is working another in a long line of temp jobs in Chicago. At thirty she expected to have gotten more from life. It's been over a year since her long term relationship imploded, she lives alone in the apartment subsidized by her parents, and the only friend she hasn't alienated is a bore. There is a possibility her current job could be permanent, could this change everything?

I loved, loved, loved this book. It is awful and cruel and just so fucking dead-on. I'm a reluctant millennial, I don't hold to the generation-bashing business - can baby boomers or gen x really afford to throw any stones? - but I just don't feel like I have anything in common with my age cohort. I buy things, not experiences, for one. Collecting is important, damn it.

Off-topic, sorry. Never mind.

'The New Me' is a convincing portrait of a young woman at a crisis in her life, trying to solve her problems with the solutions she's been taught to attempt. There are many things that Millie and I don't have in common, but her experience rang true with my own in many other ways. Butler moves the narrative from Millie's often claustrophobic and occasionally self-destructive behavior to her supervisor's, co-worker's, neighbor's, whenever an outside perspective is illuminating. This is a brief book, but every word counts. I loved the ending.