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Title details for Jillian by Halle Butler - Available

Jillian

A Novel

by Halle Butler
Halle Butler
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
The "sublimely awkward and hilarious" (Chicago Tribune), National Book Award "5 Under 35"-garnering first novel from the acclaimed author of The New Me—now in a new edition
Twenty-four-year-old Megan may have her whole life ahead of her, but it already feels like a dead end, thanks to her dreadful job as a gastroenterologist's receptionist and her heart-clogging resentment of the success and happiness of everyone around her. But no one stokes Megan's bitterness quite like her coworker, Jillian, a grotesquely optimistic, thirty-five-year-old single mother whose chirpy positivity obscures her mounting struggles.
Megan and Jillian's lives become increasingly precarious as their faulty coping mechanisms—denial, self-help books, alcohol, religion, prescription painkillers, obsessive criticism, alienated boyfriends, and, in Jillian's case, the misguided purchase of a dog—send them spiraling toward their downfalls. Wickedly authentic and brutally funny, Jillian is a subversive portrait of two women trapped in cycles of self-delusion and self-destruction, each more like the other than they would care to admit.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 7, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593214404
      • File size: 132350 KB
      • Duration: 04:35:43

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 22, 2014
      Eternal optimist Jillian, 35, works in a gastroenterologist’s office in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Chicago. New coworker Megan, 24, arrives in a state of permanent resentment: at having to work in such a stupid job, at Jillian and her much larger desk and chipper attitude. The duo’s total lack of self-awareness makes them the perfect yin and yang for Butler’s sly comedy of modern manners. When Jillian dreams of getting a cute dog, Megan is quick to cite the high cost of vet bills. Megan suffers from a handful of minor, but unpleasant, maladies and alienates her friends; Jillian blithely follows her own misguided bliss, leading her to neglect Adam, her young son. Heedless of outside advice, both women follow the paths they have chosen. As both women fray, this poison pill of a novel moves to its arch conclusion. Butler’s aim is perfect, and her touch deft.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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