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A review by gregzimmerman
Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler
4.0
It's quite brave to title your novel Banal Nightmare -- if the novel's bad, the review writes itself.
Thankfully, this is not only not bad, it's very, very good. It's a darkly comic and completely irreverent (that's to say, VERY funny, if you have the right sense of humor) story that could be subtitled The Real Housewives of Small Town America.
It's a story, though, that's totally relatable -- main character moves back home after crashing out of a relationship and life in the big city, hopes to collect herself, find herself, rebuild her life. The characters here are completely recognizable, too -- the overly ambitious woman with a dramatically inflated opinion of herself who takes offense at the most minor perceived slight, the mediocre men constantly lusting after their interns, the illusive friend, etc., etc.
One thing I loved about this novel is its POV: It's third-omniscient, and we "head jump" often from paragraph to paragraph, but not in such a way (somehow!) that would make writing teachers claw their eyes out. Somehow it works, and this helps us sink into these characters' banal nightmare lives even more.
This was really a lot of fun. Just don't read if easily offended.
Thankfully, this is not only not bad, it's very, very good. It's a darkly comic and completely irreverent (that's to say, VERY funny, if you have the right sense of humor) story that could be subtitled The Real Housewives of Small Town America.
It's a story, though, that's totally relatable -- main character moves back home after crashing out of a relationship and life in the big city, hopes to collect herself, find herself, rebuild her life. The characters here are completely recognizable, too -- the overly ambitious woman with a dramatically inflated opinion of herself who takes offense at the most minor perceived slight, the mediocre men constantly lusting after their interns, the illusive friend, etc., etc.
One thing I loved about this novel is its POV: It's third-omniscient, and we "head jump" often from paragraph to paragraph, but not in such a way (somehow!) that would make writing teachers claw their eyes out. Somehow it works, and this helps us sink into these characters' banal nightmare lives even more.
This was really a lot of fun. Just don't read if easily offended.