**Winner of the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
A New York Times 2016 Notable Book
Entertainment Weekly’s #1 Book of the Year
A Washington Post 2016 Notable Book
A Slate Top Ten Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“The Nix is a mother-son psychodrama with ghosts and politics, but it’s also a tragicomedy about anger and sanctimony in America. . . . Nathan Hill is a maestro.” —John Irving**
From the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that rocked Chicago and beyond, The Nix explores—with sharp humor and a fierce tenderness—the resilience of love and home, even in times of radical change.
It’s 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson—college professor, stalled writer—has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. He hasn’t seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy. Now she’s re-appeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the internet, and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart. Which version of his mother is true? Two facts are certain: she’s facing some serious charges, and she needs Samuel’s help.
To save her, Samuel will have to embark on his own journey, uncovering long-buried secrets about the woman he thought he knew, secrets that stretch across generations and have their origin all the way back in Norway, home of the mysterious Nix. As he does so, Samuel will confront not only Faye’s losses but also his own lost love, and will relearn everything he thought he knew about his mother, and himself.
The Nix
By nathanhill
Another of my top 10 reads in the first half of 2019 (by writers I don’t know well enough to invite to dinner): Nathan Hill’s The Nix nails the fretting, obsessive voice like no other—and with such perfect combination of humor, pathos, and gorgeous prose. I don’t think I’ve ever been so mesmerized by a bratty, self-involved, cheating college student or a video game addict who exists on 7-11 day-old weenies. And those are just the side characters. This is a writer who is entering the fray of publishing at the top of his game. Writers: A great book to study for voice, multiple povs, handling time, interiority, and backstory, as well as thematic cohesion.
Hill’s award-winning debut is equally wildly ambitious and inventive. Like an oversized couch with some of the stuffing spilling out, it seems to meander all over the place with Samuel, the protagonist, a disaffected college professor online video gamer who got an advance for a novel he hasn’t written. When the mother who abandoned him at age eleven throws rocks at a conservative political candidate and is arrested, he is given the opportunity to write her whole story before someone else can–who better to do it than the writer son she dumped? And, he really does need the money. The journey has us traveling through the radicalism of the 60s, suburbia, all the way to post 9/11 and post Iraq, with multipe digressions into, for example, a Norwegian ghost story and a deep examination of video game addiction including a one paragraph ten page internal monologue from the POV of an addict. This is a big book in every sense of the word. The writing is original, and clever, meaning genuinely funny, while much of the novel captures the melancholy and sense of loss lurking beneath the social satire. This is a really good read, and perfect for those who are patient with extended stories within stories (like, say, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt) that sometimes may wander out of control but are dazzling in their brilliance.
There are some years when I seem to enjoy all the critical literary darlings, the front-page raves and the prestigious award nominees, I see why they’re important or great or beautiful, and I agree; 2016 wasn’t one of those years. Except for this book: I love everything about THE NIX. I think it deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it, and I can’t wait to read Nathan Hill’s next.
I stick mostly to Science Fiction, but I periodically veer off to read different genres. This was one of my better choices. It has enough nerdy content to keep the sci fi reader engaged, but has great characters and a great story.
Amazingly dense social commentary embedded within a ripping good story told by a true master of language.
The Nix was pretty popular in 2016, and I honestly never thought it would be a book for me until I saw it compared to The Goldfinch and decided to take the chance. 620 pages later, I can’t believe it’s over.
The Nix is about a man named Samuel, whose mother leaves him when he is just 11 years old. It skips around in time and lands in 2011, when his mother becomes a politically charged figure known as the Packer Attacker. He has to help his mother, but on his way to doing that, he has to understand her, and ultimately himself.
This book was 10 years in the making, and you can tell how much time was spent on it through the depth and layers throughout this gigantic book. It’s funny and moving, and beautifully written, and I haven’t loved characters this month since The Goldfinch. This is truly an amazing book to get lost in.
It was hard to put this book down. The ending was nothing like I had envisioned in my mind. It was a great book.
Best description of the 1968 Democratic Convention I’ve ever read. I watched the entire night on TV and this explains a lot. Growing up in Iowa in the 50’s and how women were squelched is also accurate. A scary portrait that brought back many memories. His description of video game addiction is chilling and captures the nature of addiction well. This is a multi faceted first novel that is very worth reading.
This is one of the few books that I was unable to force myself to finish. I abandoned it halfway through.
Brilliant. Great language mastery, inexhaustible fantasy . Can’t put the book down once you start reading and at the same time don’t want it to finish.
Great book, very imaginative and entertaining. Looking forward to his next books.
It is, without a doubt, unlike anything I’ve read before.
The Nix is a son’s story and a mother’s story. Starting with Samuel’s perspective we find an angry young man over the abandonment of his mother Faye. He is struggling with life and who he is as a person. Then we have Faye who seems to constantly run away. She has her own personal demons to handle starting with the ones in her childhood. Along the way, we meet new characters and read from their perspectives as well. It does tie up at the end but it felt lackluster to me. While I feel that The Nix is written well and has its moments that really get to you I just felt it took to long to get to the point and it failed to hold my attention.
Easily one of my Top 10 Favorites!! I ha rn’t laughed so much in years and it kicks ya right in the feels, too!!
I thought this book was very well written. The plot was surprising and I couldn’t figure out how it would end. I will read any book Mr. Hill brings out in the future!
I read this for my book club and I highly recommend it for a GREAT discussion. There are a lot of fabulous topics to think through. It was enlightening in an unusual way and I’ve continued thinking about a few scenes even months after the fact.
Nathan Hill has created quite original characters who at some point influence each other in unpredictable ways very well written and thought provoking I look forward to his next novel he has the writing gift