The Nix
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I am once again telling you that BookPeople is the best. I like to treat myself with their mystery boxes; my last box came with Will My Cat Eat MY Eyeballs? And Other Questions about Dead Bodies (dope), The Revisioners (also dope), and The Nix by Nathan Hill (slightly less dope-- see below).
The Nix is a 700-page (brag) vortex. It sucked me right in and I simply had to know what would happen next. Samuel, the protagonist, is stuck in a lull as an adult when his life oddly converges with his mother who abandoned him as a child. From there, the novel branches into multiple perspectives with an attempt to provide context- and therefore empathy- for all parties involved.
When I read some chapters, I thought to myself *wow this reads like David Foster Wallace in Infinite Jest*-- a book I have read in entirety (and don’t you forget it). Later, I came across a NYT article making the same comparison and thought to myself *okay, I guess I write for The New York Times now*. Nathan Hill is so dexterous in his writing; he moves between different tones seamlessly and each one is fitting for the character. Oftentimes, he strikes the mix of superfluous but also really telling but also snarky-- as if you took the stream of consciousness happening in your brain, filtered it a little, and used a really good thesaurus. That’s very David Foster Wallace-y. Hill executes this well, but not David Foster Wallace well, ya know?
I really enjoyed this book while I was in the beginning three-fourths: the writing is impressive, the plot is entertaining, and the characters are interesting. Towards the end, it felt too matchy-matchy. Without giving any spoilers, I’ll just say that not everything needs to have a neat pin put in it. So, overall, I waffle between 3/5 and 4/5 flames. Halfway through, I thought The Nix was brilliant and I legitimately dreaded putting it down. I even stayed up late to read it and didn’t get my full 8 hours. Still, I can’t with good conscience give a book ⅘ if I literally rolled my eyes because of how he chose to complete one character’s journey. Basically, I highly recommend parts of The Nix but not the whole thing, which doesn’t really fly. Overall, I give it 3/5 flames.
