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Nicotine by Nell Zink

Literary fiction

Nicotine

by Nell Zink

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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

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.

Member ratings (1,139)

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Literary fiction
View all
Intermezzo
The Book of George
Real Americans
Dirty Diana
Wellness
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
The God of the Woods
Same As It Ever Was
Annie Bot
Bear
Mercury
True Biz
Family Happiness
The Husbands
The Lady Waiting
The Other Valley
Hard by a Great Forest
Good Material
The Bullet Swallower
Happy All the Time
Rental House
Alice Sadie Celine
Let Us Descend
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Shark Heart
Homeseeking
Transcendent Kingdom
Hello Beautiful
Dominicana
What's Mine and Yours
The Unsettled
Ask Again, Yes
Vladimir
Infinite Country
The Prophets
Normal People
The Verifiers
Salvage the Bones
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
I Have Some Questions for You
Black Buck
The History of Love
Age of Vice
Paper Names
The Light Pirate
The Secret History
The Kite Runner
Memorial
The Half Moon
Happiness Falls
The Gifted School
The Death of Vivek Oji
The Knockout Queen
Little Monsters
Yerba Buena
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Free Food for Millionaires
A Burning
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The Water Dancer
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The Sympathizer
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Lot
An American Marriage
The Animators
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Woman No. 17
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