{"product_id":"jillian-9780143135524","title":"Jillian","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe \"sublimely awkward and hilarious\" \u003ci\u003e(Chicago Tribune)\u003c\/i\u003e, National Book Award \"5 Under 35\"-garnering first novel from the acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eThe New Me\u003c\/i\u003e--now in a new edition\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTwenty-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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMegan 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, \u003ci\u003eJillian\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHalle Butler is the author of \u003ci\u003eJillian\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe New Me\u003c\/i\u003e. She has been named a National Book Award Foundation \"5 Under 35\" honoree and a \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e Best Young American Novelist.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50707615056146,"sku":"9780143135524","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_81ea4d69-03b2-41ca-b0d0-77c7dde46b57.jpg?v=1734500702","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/jillian-9780143135524","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}