A review by itsgg
The Nix, by Nathan Hill

4.0

John Irving meets David Foster Wallace? This book is clever, satirical, overstuffed with minor characters and subplots, and, unfortunately, too long. Editing is the hardest part of writing, which is why I'm frustrated to find yet another debut novel by an author who tried to stuff all his ideas of the past decade into a single, 700-page book. Don't get me wrong, it's worth reading, I just wish it had had a stronger editor. Also, I listened to it as an audiobook, and the reader is TERRIBLE and distracting -- the type who does an over-acted, falsetto "Valley Girl" voice for a college student -- but obviously, that's not the author's fault. So read it, but read it on paper/Kindle rather than listening to the audio book, and recognize that while the lack of editing isn't on the same, inexcusable level of a book like "City on Fire," there are a lot of extraneous and repetitive asides. But the detailed, satirical take on the overarching theme -- the ghosts of the past haunt us all -- is a promising start for Nathan Hill.