Author Halle Butler at home on January 28, 2015, shortly after the release of her novel “Jillian.” (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune)

While reading Halle Butler’s new novel, Banal Nightmare, I almost felt like the book was holding me hostage.

Is this a good thing? Read on, friends.

Banal Nightmare is Butler’s third novel, following 2015’s Jillian – admiringly described in this newspaper as “the feel-bad book of the year” – and 2019’s The New Me. Butler is considered one of the writers most adept at exploring the lives and minds of the millennial generation, America’s answer to Britain’s Sally Rooney.

As an officially very old-fashioned person, I now pick up a millennial novel out of curiosity, out of a desire to better understand where a generation comes from that has come of age in a different world to the one I grew up in. It’s the opposite of how I read the novels about middle-age anxieties by John Updike and Philip Roth as a teenager.

I’ve had enough of middle-aged angst floating around in my head now, thank you very much. I don’t need it in my novels.

“Banal Nightmare” loosely revolves around the character of Moddie, a largely unsuccessful artist who has retreated from her life in Chicago back to the regional college town where she grew up after the end of a long, increasingly dysfunctional relationship.

Moddie is left stranded, haunted by the failed relationship and another disturbing encounter that lurks for the first two-thirds of the book until it is revealed in a truly jaw-dropping scene, the details of which I will not reveal to readers. Moddie lives in a gloomy apartment, has no job, and is mostly desperate to reconnect with her high school friends.

But while Moddie takes center stage, we also spend a lot of time with other characters, Pam, a college arts administrator who has invited a visiting artist to campus for the semester and wonders if the artist is an escape from the city, and Pam finds the relationship emotionally sluggish and completely suffocating.

There’s the artist David, who has long since left his previous successes behind and has no idea how he got to this place. Kimberly, a wannabe author in Moddie’s circle, is deeply jealous of another character’s short essay that was published in the New York Times, but instead of writing, she spends her time building a proof-of-concept website to become a writer at the level she believes she deserves.

At times it’s almost oppressive how Butler explores the interiors of her numerous characters – those mentioned above and others – all of whom seem to be possessed by a combination of excessive self-importance and pervasive self-loathing. They are deeply alienated people, bottomless wells of desire who have no concrete idea of ​​what might fulfill their desires.

Yet even as I felt myself drowning in misery, I was captivated by Butler’s deft wit, particularly the way she illuminates how performative online culture has seeped into the lives of these people. These characters literally don’t know how to live.

Then again, who does? Butler often harshly attacks her creations and portrays them as fools, but I also began to wonder if stupidity is simply the default human condition. Spending time around these people was not pleasant, but fascinating and extremely engaging.

“Trivial Nightmare” is truly the perfect title for this book. These lives seem completely mundane and meaningless, but this lack of meaning is truly the stuff nightmares are made of.

And when there are signs that he is waking from the nightmare, as Moddie does towards the end of the book, something unexpected emerges.

A truly fascinating reading experience.

John Warner is the author of Why They Can’t Write: Abolishing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.

Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.

1. “The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Her Final Journey Across America” by Elizabeth Letts2. “The nature of fragile things” by Susan Meissner3. “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks4. “The good that remained undone” by Adriana Trigiani

— Dee H., Fontana, Wisconsin (on behalf of her book club, which has only read four books this season)

Dee specifically asked for books set in the Midwest of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which actually makes things pretty easy since I recommend Dear James by Jon Hassler, the great bard of that region.

1. “The Book of Joys” by Ross Gay2. “What it takes to heal” by Prentis Hemphill3. “Living Buddha, Living Christ” by Thich Nhat Hanh4. “The price you pay” by Nick Petrie5. “Every sinner bleeds” by SA Cosby

— Joanne L., Chicago

I will indulge Joanne’s love of thrillers/crime novels and recommend the classic “A Simple Plan” by Scott Smith.

1. “Camino Ghosts” by John Grisham2. “The Furies” by John Connolly3. “Wandering Stars” by Tommy Orange4. “I am a pilgrim” by Terry Hayes5. “Misfortune of the souls” by David Baldacci

—Dave S., Merrillville, Indiana

I recently turned a friend on to John Sandford’s Prey series, and Dave seems like a good candidate. I’m choosing Phantom Prey, the 18th book in the series, which doesn’t need to be read in order or in its entirety.