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    Nicotine: A Novel
    Nicotine: A Novel
    Nicotine: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Nicotine: A Novel

    Written by Nell Zink

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The ""wonderfully talented"" (Dwight Garner, New York Times) author of Mislaid returns with a fierce and audaciously funny novel of families—both the ones we’re born into and the ones we create—a story of obsession, idealism, and ownership, centered around a young woman who inherits her bohemian late father's childhood home.

    Recent business school graduate Penny Baker has rebelled against her family her whole life—by being the conventional one. Her mother, Amalia, was a member of a South American tribe called the Kogi; her much older father, Norm, long ago attained cult-like deity status among a certain cohort of aging hippies while operating a psychedelic ""healing center."" And she’s never felt particularly close to her much older half-brothers from Norm’s previous marriage—one wickedly charming and obscenely rich (but mostly just wicked), one a photographer on a distant tropical island.

    But all that changes when her father dies, and Penny inherits his childhood home in New Jersey. She goes to investigate the property and finds it not overgrown and abandoned, but rather occupied by a group of friendly anarchist squatters whom she finds unexpectedly charming, and who have renamed the property ""Nicotine."" The Nicotine residents (united in defense of smokers’ rights) possess the type of passion and fervor Penny feels she’s desperately lacking, and the other squatter houses in the neighborhood provide a sense of community she has never felt before. She soon moves into a nearby residence, becoming enmeshed in the political fervor and commitment of her fellow squatters.

    As the Baker family’s lives begin to converge around the fate of the house now called Nicotine, Penny grows ever bolder and more desperate to protect it—and its residents—until a fateful night when a reckless confrontation between her old family and her new one changes everything.

    Nell Zink exquisitely captures the clash between Baby-Boomer idealism and Millennial pragmatism, between the have-nots and want-mores, in a riotous yet tender novel that brilliantly encapsulates our time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 4, 2016
    ISBN9780062563613
    Author

    Nell Zink

    Nell Zink grew up in rural Virginia. She has worked in a variety of trades, including masonry and technical writing. In the early 1990s, she edited an indie rock fanzine. Her books include The Wallcreeper, Mislaid, Private Novelist, and Nicotine, and her writing has appeared in n+1, Granta, and Harper’s. She lives near Berlin, Germany.

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    Reviews for Nicotine

    3.5/5

    53 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      It's not what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. I save the book because I thought it was going to actually be about nicotine and its role and why it was created and politicized. I didn't read anything about the book when I downloaded it and I started listening. Not much into these kind of books usually I'm into ones that are educational or real life. I continue to listen to the book and like the storyline it was interesting and a bit intriguing. I do wish it would have ended differently for all members of the book. I'm guessing the way that I left to maybe there's going to be a part two I would hope so.
    • 3/5
      Psychedelic misfits. I really had a hard time understanding these characters. Maybe it is because I am from a different generation. Could not understand people who seem to have nothing to do but squat in empty homes for causes that I couldn't understand. It seemed to me that the individuals certainly seemed to have enough money for doing things, just not paying rent. The writing was intense, with much verbiage of a political tone. I just think I am not all that politically knowledgeable, so it didn't fit in my little world.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Joy's Review: A young woman deals with the loss of her father and a complete lack of purpose by winding up in a communal living situation. It took me a while to find the rhythm of this book, but once I connected with the style, I enjoyed it very much. Funny and sarcastic, Zink pokes fun at all of us who think we know what we want, but really don't. I found it very entertaining. But I warn you: most of our book club hated this book!
    • 4/5
      I really, really liked this book, but find it hard to review. I was telling some friends what it was about, and they thought it would be very dark and off-putting....but it isn't. Penny is a young woman caring for her dying father (Norm) who is a shaman. Her mother, Amalia, was adopted by Norm, but several years later, marries him. Penny has two half brothers...what happened to their mother is a mystery...who are slightly older than her mother. After Norm dies, Penny agrees to reclaim a family-owned home now occupied by squatters. Those squatters are quasi-anarchists/revolutionaries. Their common interest is smokers' rights. Penny falls in love with one of them, as do her sociopath oldest brother and her widowed mother. It's all very unconventional, but makes sense in the context of the characters' lives and isn't dark or sunny...it's both/neither...as they say, "it is what it is" and we adapt to our surroundings.The story is about coming of age, understanding that the past isn't as definitive as we'd like....people have different perspectives and understandings of what happened and why. It's a really good read and I''ll be reading more of Ms. Zink's works.