You are going to see The Nix by Nathan Hill on a lot of Best of 2016 lists, and I’m not surprised to find it there at all. The Nix, if nothing else, is prescient. It is the perfect novel for 2016 – politicians behaving badly, American in economic, political and, dare i say, psychological despair. You get my drift. It is the perfect novel for this moment, in spite of the fact that much of it takes place in the 60s. It is an important novel in the way it shows how history repeats itself, and more impressive because all of this was written before Trump swept the nation.
But you probably won’t see it on my Best of 2016 list. It’s not that I didn’t like The Nix, because I did, I just found it a little verbose. It was LONG. Too long. I would have slashed entire sections. But the parts I liked, I liked a lot. It is a story of an adult son reconnecting with his mother after years of abandonment. This reconnection mostly takes place through an investigation into her past and the secrets that are revealed.
Who would like this novel? Immediately I want to compare Nathan Hill to Jonathan Franzen, and I mean that in a good way. The Nix had none of the misogyny of Franzen, but deals contemporary issues in a similar manner. Both authors look at the big picture through the lens of a families, and do it startlingly well. So this novel is for you if you like to explore the philosophical, political and sociological issues of the world we live in through literature. Oh yeah, and you should also like really long novels.
52 books or bust 
Great review! I think I will try it, I can’t resist the 60s.
I read this book back over the summer after meeting Mr. Hill at Book Expo America. I’ve just completed 115 books this year and “The Nix” will be in my top 5. To think that it’s a debut is amazing to me. I believe that I may have also compared him favorably to Franzen. I thought that his take down of academia in 2015 was hysterical and his description of a body being destroyed by sitting in front of a computer for days at a time was pure brilliance.
True, the academia parts were brilliant. I had really high expectations going in, maybe that was my problem. I also remember thinking that the writing, sentence by sentence was great. But ultimately – too long!
One thing I’ve really noticed since I started keeping track of how many books I read in a year, is I’ve read far fewer long novels! And that’s kind of a shame because I think I’m missing out on some good ones.
But the fact that you wanted to slash whole sections of this makes me wonder if I will like it or be annoyed at it’s length. I’m obviously not a person that enjoys long books because they are super long.
It does appeal to me though…maybe let the Universe decide for me on this one?
Now that I read more e-books length isn’t such a consideration since I can’t see the bulk when I pick it up. It’s all about the cover for me.
I haven’t read this one, but have seen it everywhere and I think it’s such a shame when really fantastic and important books just get too caught up in themselves (i.e. apparently not being able to edit!).
I guess I’m not too into Really LONG books but the author does sound good. I will wait and think it over. Nice review
I think if you’re in the right mood it would be good.
Yay! Because I bought myself a copy! I just knew this would be right up my alley! ~ Penny
Enjoy!
The timeliness of this definitely appeals to me. I’ve not been particularly politically aware and I’ve taken this election as a wake-up call!
Yeah. I don’t normally follow American politics all that closely, but now it’s hard no to.