Play Book Tag discussion

The Nix by Nathan Hill
5 stars + ♥

I hereby pledge that the next time a new book is touted as channeling Franzen that I will not wait over six month to read it....Hill's debut novel is one of the few freshman works that I honestly cannot find flaw with.

Hill deftly weaves together the story of Samuel, a middle-aged disgruntled college English professor addicted to a video game, with the formative 11th year of Samuel's life when he made life-altering friendships and his mother abandoned him with the pivotal month of his mother's life in 1968 Chicago. Hill starts with a shocking event: Samuel's' mother, whom he hasn't seen in over 40 years, attacks a presidential candidate, which sets Samuel on the path to finally learn about his mother, and maybe about himself along the way.

The book is full of interesting characters, all so unique that there is no chance of confusing them. They are each archetypes of various segments of society and each contribute to the story in some way, though their individual contributions are not fully revealed until the story wraps them all together in the last hundred pages or so. I love stories like this; stories that reveal a layer at a time, carefully weaving the characters together.

And, the writing is great. I listened to this on audio and it had the added benefit of being read by one of my favorite narrators, which really just made the story flow that much more smoothly. Hill has been compared to Franzen and DFW, and I don't think that is bad company to keep after your first foray into the field!

I will say that The Nix was not as dark or depressing as Franzen can be at times. The characters each had a redeeming quality (though college student Laura was the closest to being totally vapid) and I would even venture to say that the book ended on a high note bordering on feel-good.

The Nix definitely will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if it is in the realm of genres you gravitate toward, then I cannot recommend it highly enough!

What a well written review! I love how reading every review of this book takes me right back into it. For me it was a five star read too. My only problem these days, is that due to PBT, and all its wonderful challenges, I haven't read very many things that aren't four and five stars. I have my top 10 for 2017, completed already. And we're barely into May. But the Nix will stay. So glad you loved it. Knew it.

Thanks for keeping my interest fresh. After almost 3 months, I am now #2 of 10 in the holds queue.

I'm so glad you loved it. :-)

Oh my, I feel my TBR growing yet again.

I agree. I should have given a heart too. I would be shocked if anything replaced it in my top spot of the year. I adored it. It was just so good. And I love your review. I now follow him on fb so I'll know about events too.