Pinterest tracking pixel
If you are having difficulty navigating this website please contact us at member.services@bookofthemonth.com or 1-877-236-8540.
Oops! The page didn’t load right. Please refresh and try again.
Nicotine by Nell Zink
Literary fiction

Nicotine

by Nell Zink

Quick take

Reading a good book offers the rush of a good smoke at half the price of a carton of cigarettes, and with none of the associated health risks.

Why I love it

Nina Sankovitch
Bestselling Author

Like the drug from which the book gets its title, Nicotine is adrenalizing and addictive. I could not put it down. My heart was racing and my thoughts were percolating and enjoyment oozed from every pore as I sunk into Zink’s unadulterated good-time storytelling.

I couldn’t help but love Penny Baker, recent college grad of pure heart with zero prospects, a taste for cigarettes, and a preference for bone jewelry and drum circle dancing. She’s steeped in grief following the death of her father '“ an event that took weeks of hospice care (Zink skewers the promise of 'œa good death' with sharp insights and surprising humor) and Penny was bedside for the entire thing, while the other members of her family largely bailed out due to commitments like work and ambition and greed, concepts utterly foreign to our dear Penny.

Penny needs love and comfort but instead her eager-to-move-on family members throw her the bone of a long-abandoned family house in Jersey City. When Penny arrives to find the place already inhabited by a crew of cigarette-smoking, tobacco-chewing squatters, she realizes she has nothing to call her own except an urgent need to belong somewhere, somehow. Having caught sight of a cute guy and in need of a nicotine fix, Penny sticks around for a beer and a smoke.

What ensues is a joyful, unpredictable, and surprisingly-affecting coming of age story. Penny may already be in her twenties but there is just about everything she needs to learn about identity, community, and connection. Out of the wreckage of her broken family and with the help of an impotent lover, some adventurous housemates, a huge comfy couch, and her own freakish optimism, Penny comes into her own. Her patience (lack of resolve), determination (stubbornness), and flexibility (indecision) get her to the place where she wants to be, in the home where she was meant to be and with the people she needs.

A glorious and surprising ending after a twisting and satisfying ride: the act of reading a good book offers the rush of a good smoke at half the price of a carton of cigarettes, and with none of the associated health risks and no pariah status. Nell Zink and her fearless writing prove my point: Nicotine is a win/win addiction.

Read less

Member thoughts

All (926)
All (926)
Love (77)
Like (352)
Dislike (497)
1067 ratings
  • 7% Love
  • 33% Like
  • 47% Dislike
    Literary fiction
    • Transcendent Kingdom
    • Dominicana
    • What's Mine and Yours
    • Vladimir
    • Infinite Country
    • The Prophets
    • Normal People
    • True Biz
    • The Verifiers
    • Betty
    • Salvage the Bones
    • Ask Again, Yes
    • Black Buck
    • The History of Love
    • Luster
    • The Remains of the Day
    • The Secret History
    • The Kite Runner
    • Memorial
    • The Gifted School
    • The Death of Vivek Oji
    • Valentine
    • Leave the World Behind
    • The Knockout Queen
    • Yerba Buena
    • Free Food for Millionaires
    • A Burning
    • Writers & Lovers
    • The Mothers
    • The Water Dancer
    • Sing, Unburied, Sing
    • Small Country
    • The Sympathizer
    • Fleishman Is in Trouble
    • Lot
    • An American Marriage
    • The Animators
    • The Leavers
    • Swing Time
    • The Mars Room
    • Exit West
    • The Windfall
    • Goodbye, Vitamin
    • White Fur
    • Chemistry
    • Woman No. 17
    • The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
    • Eat Only When You're Hungry
    • Rainbirds
    • Unsheltered
    • A Ladder to the Sky
    • Golden Child
    • Lost and Wanted
    • The Goldfinch
    • Little Women
    • The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P
    • & Sons
    • The Association of Small Bombs
    • Lolly Willowes
    • All Grown Up
    • Marlena
    • The Light Pirate
    • Signal Fires
    • Someday, Maybe
    • The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
    • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
    • Woman of Light
    • Mercury Pictures Presents
    • Marrying the Ketchups