RAWTS: Matt’s Take on The Nix
From Matt:
My boss at a college internship thought I was funny, and remarked that I should try standup comedy. I’m glad my ego didn’t take the bait. I’m the worst storyteller. Since then though, I’ve thought about how fun it would be if I were to jot down comical scenarios & observations that I’ve come across over the years in a notepad. I could workshop them with Amy, and have multiple hilarious bits at the ready when hanging with friends, or maybe even, one day, on stage. I never did that.
But I bet Nathan Hill did. In his novel, The Nix, he absolutely stuffs it to the gills with observational bits. The Nix is a lighthearted story of complicated intergenerational relationships, with the narrative flowing back and forth through various time dimensions. Samuel finds out that his mother, Faye, who left him when he was a kid is now famous for attacking a politician and, as a failing writer, was told to write a tell-all story by his publisher to feed the public’s thirst for dirt on her.
I can see why the book could be a great co-read or wine-in-hand book club book. Not only is the plot and writing style fun and engaging, but the interspersing of these observational bits lets you get to continue those ‘har de har hars’ off the pages with friends. But I’m being generous. In actuality, I found the bits not all that funny and quite distracting. Bits about mall culture, the illusion of choice, ‘remember whens’ as well as flushed-out tropes about gamers, ‘kids these days’, douchebag politicians, Disney World goers, etc. Just so many bits! The time I most enjoyed reading was a stretch — call it the “fourth fifth“ —when the bits fell away (mostly) and I could just be fully immersed with the actual story.
What actually is The Nix? It’s a cursed horse (I think). “And only at this point — at the pinnacle of speed and joy, when they felt most in control of the horse, when they felt the most ownership of it, when they most wanted to be celebrated for it and thus felt the most vanity and arrogance and pride — would the horse veer off the road that led to town and gallop toward the cliffs overlooking the sea.” Maybe Nathan needed to let go of the bit.
originally published on instagram