This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think there’s something deeply conceited and insincere about this new wave of fiction where every single chaThis might be an unpopular opinion, but I think there’s something deeply conceited and insincere about this new wave of fiction where every single character is relentlessly mean, bitter, and depressed.
Reading Banal Nightmare, I kept wondering what it was that Butler was trying to say with this book. Maybe that the performativity of liberal culture and the constant pressure to compare ourselves to others are turning us all into narcissists? If so, I think there are ways of exploring this topic that don’t require making all your characters excruciatingly boring and obnoxious.
The problem isn’t that everyone in this novel is unlikeable, it’s that they’re all unlikeable in the exact same way. The ten or so different narrators have such similar voices and thoughts that it was impossible for me to tell them apart. All the women are catty, jealous, and whiny; all the men are misogynistic, frustrated, and obsessed with dating younger women. Everyone hates their spouses. Being in their heads was a genuinely miserable experience, made worse by the fact that most of the book is made up of the characters’ inner monologue.
The dialogue also felt ridiculously over-manufactured, with characters going on long, rambling rants for no discernible reason. I assume the author was attempting to show how neurotic these people are, but she took the neurosis to a point where their conversations just felt absurd. The exaggerated unrealism of the dialogue gave the whole book a strange, surreal atmosphere, which felt out of place in an otherwise very grounded contemporary novel.
Overall, this was a complete miss for me. I guess I’m just over millennial fiction centering privileged people who wallow in self-pity while moaning about the hardships of middle-class life. As a millennial who is currently going through many of the experiences depicted in these stories, I don’t find this kind of narratives relatable at all. Frankly, I think they’re defeatist and mean spirited. If you want to write about unlikeable characters who are out of touch with reality (I’m thinking My Year of Rest and Relaxation or Succession), you need to give them some compelling qualities; self-loathing and ennui alone do not an interesting character make. ...more
In the current literary landscape, dominated by sad hot girl narrators who spend hundreds of pages wallowing in misery and revisiting their trauma, HaIn the current literary landscape, dominated by sad hot girl narrators who spend hundreds of pages wallowing in misery and revisiting their trauma, Happy Hour stands out like a poppy in a field of grass.
True to its title, the novel follows young socialite Isa as she and her friends hop from party to party, trying to make a name for themselves in the glitz and glamour of New York. Isa’s carefree attitude hides a tragic past that she refuses to grapple with, choosing to live in a perpetual present instead. She feigns nonchalance in the face of her precarious financial situation, fragile relationships, and uncertain future. Behind her bubbly façade, however, lays a witty and perceptive young woman, who recounts her interactions with the city’s upper class in a tone by turns wry and sincere.
The story unfurls in a sequence of short vignettes, featuring a seemingly endless list of characters that you inevitably forget about after a handful of pages. Most of them are nothing but background actors in our protagonist’s life, and only serve to highlight the stark contrast between their privileged lifestyle and her perpetual struggle to make ends meet. Isa’s exterior is hard to crack; the only person who can really see through it is her best friend Gala, a Bosnian refugee who shares her immigrant background and resulting sense of displacement. Their relationship was my favorite part of the book, and added some much needed emotional depth to a story that can otherwise feel a little superficial at times.
What really sets Happy Hour apart from other recent novels about the lives of disaffected young women, however, is its voice. Isa’s narration is light-hearted and spirited, sometimes almost forcefully so; she refuses to be brought down by her difficult circumstances, approaching life with a playful irony that helps her cope with the very pressing issues she must face. It’s refreshing to read about an intelligent female character who is determined to enjoy life as much as she can, without overindulging in self-pity. For this reason alone, I’m glad I discovered this book....more
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