A review by emilypolcyn
The Nix by Nathan Hill
5.0
700 pages and I was engaged the whole time. I’ve been getting back into reading as a hobby, and this book reminded me why I love it so much. Hill has such an excellent grasp on what makes a book interesting. His characters, who often begin as hate-able caricatures, each feel fully-formed, real, and messy. Plus I love an ensemble cast. I was a bit leery of reading a book written by a white dude about a white dude writing a book, but even though it’s framed through Samuel’s novel, the world is so much larger than that. This book truly created a fully fleshed out world that I wanted to keep returning to.
Hill has a mastery of technical writing that doesn’t bog down the book at all. Hill isn’t afraid to experiment, like the 10-page long sentence about a dude who’s trying to quit gaming. His writing style always lends itself excellently to feelings of being lost, stuck in a rut, and spiraling (which is great, since that’s such a huge theme in the book). My favorite technique he uses is his imagery. We’ll be listening in on an important conversation, intercut with prose about a seemingly mundane detail in the background, like the goods being sold in an airport. Hill uses these details to build on the themes in the scene and really show us the lens of who is telling us about the world—Samuel’s inner monologue is so vastly different from Ginsberg’s and Faye’s and Perwinkle’s (and WHAT a character Periwinkle is).
My one concern early on was Laura. As a college student who’s had to formally complain against professors… that’s not how it works, lol. But I always got the sense that we were seeing Laura through a specific lens and that she was being made into a caricature for thematic reasons. This all made sense and paid of when it’s really implied that we’re reading Samuel’s novel. Also, oh my God, I loved that ending. I’m such a sucker for utilizing the medium through which you’re telling the story as an important part of the story itself.
Overall, this book was masterfully written and is going to stick with me for a long, long time. Can’t wait to force everyone in my life to read this book.
Hill has a mastery of technical writing that doesn’t bog down the book at all. Hill isn’t afraid to experiment, like the 10-page long sentence about a dude who’s trying to quit gaming. His writing style always lends itself excellently to feelings of being lost, stuck in a rut, and spiraling (which is great, since that’s such a huge theme in the book). My favorite technique he uses is his imagery. We’ll be listening in on an important conversation, intercut with prose about a seemingly mundane detail in the background, like the goods being sold in an airport. Hill uses these details to build on the themes in the scene and really show us the lens of who is telling us about the world—Samuel’s inner monologue is so vastly different from Ginsberg’s and Faye’s and Perwinkle’s (and WHAT a character Periwinkle is).
My one concern early on was Laura. As a college student who’s had to formally complain against professors… that’s not how it works, lol. But I always got the sense that we were seeing Laura through a specific lens and that she was being made into a caricature for thematic reasons. This all made sense and paid of when it’s really implied that we’re reading Samuel’s novel. Also, oh my God, I loved that ending. I’m such a sucker for utilizing the medium through which you’re telling the story as an important part of the story itself.
Overall, this book was masterfully written and is going to stick with me for a long, long time. Can’t wait to force everyone in my life to read this book.