The Nix by Nathan Hill

THE NOVEL AS SOCIAL COMMENTARY
The introductory epigraph, rather a longish one, contains the Utterances of a Buddha about blind men who had to touch an elephant and then report their findings to the king. Different parts of the elephant is touched by each man, resulting in different opinions of what the elephant is. This 'utterance' establishes the purpose, content and intent of this novel. It also allows different kind of readers to react differently to the elephant.

This complex autobiographical novel puts the spotlight on society as baggage from the previous century, inherited by generations who are dressed up with nowhere to go. It is written as social satire, or a tragicomedy in a way. It shoots straight into the concepts of true or false; the chaotic society as it is established in the postmodern ideology; a freedom demanded which throws any possibility for a structured society out; a democratic establishment so out of control that nothing can be accomplished - too many processes to hinder any final decision on anything. 

It is the postapocolypse of social implosion; a prologue to the survival of the fittest in a post-democratic nix(nothing; denial or refusal; put an end to or cancel): pseudonyms - nada, zilch, zero. It leaves the possibility of a renaissance in question.

The country is falling apart around us. This is plain even to the pay-no-attention-at-all crowd, even to the low-information undecided-voter segment. It’s all crumbling right in front of our eyes. People lose their jobs, their pensions disappear overnight, they keep getting those quarterly statements showing their retirement funds are worth ten percent less for the sixth quarter in a row, and their houses are worth half what they paid for them, and their bosses can’t get a loan to make payroll, and Washington is a circus, and they have homes full of interesting technology and they look at their smartphones and wonder ‘How could a world that produces something as amazing as this be such a shitty world?’

DOCUMENTARY NOVEL: PLOT
Two events triggered the plot. The 1968 protests in Chicago, and the 2011 protests in New York. The former was attended by a mother, prior to her marriage, and the latter by her son, many years after she disappeared.

The story opens in 2011 when the mother is arrested for throwing rocks/stones/pebbles at a presidential candidate. The size of the 'missiles' is irrelevant. It is the perceptions of the press, politicians and public that turns the events into the truth as they see it (the touching of the elephant).

"The story began as a family drama about an estranged mother and son, but over the years it morphed into a sprawling tale about politics, online gaming, academia, Norwegian mythology, social media, the Occupy Wall Street protests and the 1960s counterculture.

“The Nix” centers on a washed-up writer named Samuel Andresen-Anderson, who, after failing to live up to his early promise, has succumbed to a soul-crushing job as an adjunct professor of literature in a Chicago suburb. To escape the suffocating sense of failure, Samuel spends 40 hours a week playing the role of Dodger the Elven Thief in an online game called World of Elfscape, where he goes on dragon- and orc-slaying quests with his guild.

He’s pulled back into his traumatic past when he learns that his mother, Faye, who abandoned the family when he was 11, faces assault charges for throwing rocks at a politician." (Source:New York Times (Aug. 26, 2016))

The Nisse, derived from the Norwegian Mythology, is established in different aspects of the tale.

A nisse,” he said, and she nodded. She loved the weird names her father gave his ghosts: nisse, nix, gangferd, draug.

The 682-page novel reminds me of American Gods by Neil Gaiman in scope, although many other authors are thrown into the mix, such as John Irving, Charles Dickens, Donna Tartt, Michael Chabon, and Tom Wolfe to describe this debut author's work. The Kirkus Reviews noted “hints of Pynchon”.

The New York Times describes the novel as prickly social satire, which takes aim at academia, politics, publishing and social media.

The novel also reminds me of The Politically Correct Ultimate Storybook: Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Gardner. 

A big bowl of reality with a dollop of mythology and fairy-fun added to it. Top it off with a hint of stand-up comedy and a very strong storyline. The book was so autobiographical that the author had to promise his mom that she was not the character Faye in the book. 

One of the most striking and emotionally-charged metaphors in the book, for me, was when Sam's mom, Faye, told him to choose nine toys and arrange them in his toy wagon to go for a walk. While they were out strolling on the street, they passed trees in which one lonely maniacal leaf near the top of the tree was standing up, dancing in the wind, flopping around like a fish, while the rest hung quietly in the dead air. (Pathetic fallacy at work here?)

Faye pointed out the leaf and the significance of it. "A ghost", she said." "Someone not good enough to go to heaven but not bad enough to go to hell. He's in between."

..."He's restless, she said. "He wants to move on..." 

Sam started crying again. He did not want to be that leaf. Faye turned around and took him home, told him to put his toys away. Faye told Sam that he should have brought all nine toys, and not only eight. He should have paid more attention. 

Little did she realize that he counted the wagon as the ninth toy...

That was a few months before she disappeared, leaving a marriage in which a spoon tried to love garbage disposal forever...

COMMENTS
It all depends on which part of the elephant you have touched to interpret this monumental tale. It can be sensational, thrilling, gripping, informative, thought-provoking, witty, funny, sad, or whatever you need from this literary masterpiece. A journalistic reality worked into a mythical mystery. An icon of our times. A good one.

So by the way, who remembers the longest paragraph I have ever encountered in a book in my entire life? Pages and pages! Guinness Book of Records material. In the last section of the book.


Quotes from the book:

Pwnage once told Samuel that the people in your life are either enemies, obstacles, puzzles, or traps...

...So instead of looking for answers, he’d begun simply writing her story, thinking that if he could see the world the way she saw it, maybe he’d achieve something greater than mere answers: Maybe he’d achieve understanding, empathy, forgiveness. So he wrote about her childhood, about growing up in Iowa, about going to Chicago for college, about the protest in 1968, about that final month she was with the family before she disappeared, and the more he wrote the more expansive the story became. Samuel wrote about his mother and father and grandfather, he wrote about Bishop and Bethany and the headmaster, he wrote about Alice and the judge and Pwnage—he was trying to understand them, trying to see the things he was too self-absorbed to see the first time through. Even Laura Pottsdam, vicious Laura Pottsdam, Samuel tried to locate a little sympathy for her...

...What Faye won’t understand and may never understand is that there is not one true self hidden by many false ones...

...You don’t once consider how Bethany or Bishop might feel about this violation of their privacy. You are so blinded by your desire to impress and dazzle and awe the people who left you that you say yes. Yes, absolutely...

...This is not something you tell your teacher. This is something you carry on the inside, in a cavity filled with every true thing about you so that there is nothing true left on the outside. The morning your mother disappeared, especially, is stuffed way down deep, your mother asking you what you wanted to be when you grew up...

...You’d be amazed at the facts people are willing to set aside to believe that life is, indeed, great...

...then she grew up and came to a new conclusion, which she told Samuel in the month before leaving the family. She told him the same story but added her own moral: “The things you love the most will one day hurt you the worst...

...Everyone knew this, so they suffered the headmaster’s long and vivid descriptions of medical procedures and bodily effluence because they thought of it as a kind of investment in their child’s education and future...

......it's way easier to ignore all data that doesn't fit your preconceptions and believe all data that does. I believe what I believe, and you believe what you believe, and we'll agree to disagree. It's liberal tolerance meets dark ages denialism. It's very hip right now. 

Nathan Hill’s literary career almost ended before it started.

Like so many optimistic young M.F.A. graduates, Mr. Hill moved to New York City in his 20s with a hard drive full of short stories, hoping to land an agent and a publisher.

Perhaps predictably, things didn’t go according to plan. His early overtures to literary agents brought rejections. Then one day in the summer of 2004, when he was moving out of a house in Queens where he lived with 11 other guys, his car was broken into. He lost all of his possessions, including his computer and his backup drive. All of his work in progress vanished.

He sulked for a while and played lots of World of Warcraft, an online fantasy game. Eventually, though, he started something new. The story began as a family drama about an estranged mother and son, but over the years it morphed into a sprawling tale about politics, online gaming, academia, Norwegian mythology, social media, the Occupy Wall Street protests and the 1960s counterculture.

Now, 12 years later, that novel, “The Nix,” is being published by Alfred A. Knopf...
Source: New York Times

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

REVIEW
I'm not reviewing the book, neither writing a blurb for it. I'm expressing my experience of this deeply humane saga.

I've read all Frederik Backman's book and was looking forward to this latest offering. As usual it was packed with emotions, strong characters and passion. 

This time around it was a small town with a passion for ice hockey and a community who desperately needed to win the season in the interest of the future. 

Beartown did not have tourism, high-tech or mine industries; it only had darkness, cold and unemployment. It was a town where wild animals barely endure but where the people were tough enough to overcome the challenges. The high school's ice hockey team was their only claim to possible fame and future fortunes. Nobody lived in that town, everybody just survived it. The rules by which the community was built determined that all inhabitants must play by the rules, work hard, take the knocks, don't complain, keep your mouth shut. And so it was for generations.

It was the end of the season with the semi-finals looming. Emotions ran high, winning was everything, the social dynamics sped out of control and the ice hockey club's motto, "Culture, Values, Community", shuddered against the walls of the club offices and ice rink. 

The players understood their trainers. If you apply enough pressure to coal, it becomes diamonds. The club had an unpleasant culture of silence, the sort of thing you find among soldiers and criminals.

... Silence always goes hand in hand with shame. 

But then: the unthinkable happened and the silence was broken, defied, challenged, by an event that rocked the town. A whole community had to test and re-evaluate their own mores and values as well as the noble intentions they had for their children. Nobody could escape the test of loyalty... 

Some quotes from the book:

Water expands when it freezes; you need to know that if you build a house in Beartown. In the summer the rain seeps into the cracks in the bricks, then when the temperature slips below zero the moisture freezes to ice, and the bricks break. She will remember that that’s how it felt to grow up as the little sister of a dead big brother. A childhood that was one long, desperate attempt not to be liquid, not to seek out the cracks in your parents.

Water: If you let it make its way too far in, it can freeze into ice and break your heart.

There are few words that are harder to explain than “loyalty.” It’s always regarded as a positive characteristic, because a lot of people would say that many of the best things people do for each other occur precisely because of loyalty. The only problem is that many of the very worst things we do to each other occur because of the same thing.

“Never trust people who don’t have something in their lives that they love beyond all reason.” Her mom loves a man who loves a place that loves a game. This is a hockey town, and there are plenty of things you can say about those, but at least they’re predictable. You know what to expect if you live here. Day after day after day.

Beartown by Backman differs hugely from his previous books in that it moved away from the Swedish idiom and adapted a North American 'feel'. The Swedish authenticity is absent. I can only assume that the prose was adapted, stream-lined, for a much bigger American audience, with a touch of popular drama, action and excitement brought in to cater for this particular audience. The editors changed.

However, Beartown is an excellent story written by a skillful author. The town is still Swedish. The setting still the dark wonderland of the Swedish winter. A really thought-provoking, heart-stopping tale. 

A Man Called Ove was, and still is, by far my favorite Backman book. In fact, it is still one of my all-time favorite reads. It was written for a different audience with different characters to serve the tale and presented an honesty which made it a superb and highly popular read. 

The 'earthliness' and charm in A Man Called Ove, and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry and Britt-Marie Was Here have gone. The dry and subtle humor left with it. In its place a political correctness moved in with a politeness that will be more acceptable and soothing to a different audience. The previous books were character driven. This book is action-driven. The Beartown characters were interesting, strong, passionate about life, family, community and self interests. They were honest, dishonest and multi-faceted. Some were heartwarming and other heartbreaking. It ripped my heart out.

Be that as it may, I loved Beartown too. Not in love with it. Just loved it. However, it still gets another well-deserved five-star rating. Thankfully Frederik Backman was still present. 

A fantastic read. RECOMMENDED for sure!

~O~

BLURB
New York Times bestseller • The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true.

“You’ll love this engrossing novel.” —People

“Backman is a masterful writer, his characters familiar yet distinct, flawed yet heroic....There are scenes that bring tears, scenes of gut-wrenching despair, and moments of sly humor....A thoroughly empathetic examination of the fragile human spirit.” —Kirkus Reviews

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, as well as a novella, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer. His books are published in more than thirty-five countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Beartown is his latest novel.