Nicotine

August 15, 2016
Zink’s novel of anarchy in life, love, and real estate focuses on Penny Baker, daughter of healing expert and retired shaman Norm Baker, who dies after a prolonged painful illness, leaving behind Penny and her disjointed family. Amalia, Norm’s adopted daughter whom he rescued from a Cartagena garbage dump, is also Norm’s second wife and Penny’s mom. As a not-so-grieving widow, Amalia lusts after hard-hearted Matt, Norm’s oldest son from his first marriage. After seeing Norm through his last days, Penny finds herself homeless, unemployed, and haunted by memories. Matt suggests she reclaim the family’s neglected Jersey City house, but the house, christened “Nicotine” by the anarchist activist squatters who occupy it, has only one vacant room, and it’s filled with toxic waste drums. So Penny moves into another squatter home and visits Nicotine, where she falls for self-proclaimed asexual Rob. In bold strokes, punchy metaphors, and striking imagery, Zink etches her absurdist vision of modern culture, likening Norm’s hospice to a brothel licensed as a strip club because customers must ask for what they want in code (such as sex at the brothel, or quick, painless death through drugs at the hospice). Scenes of watching a loved one die and anarchists giving more family support than family add a touching chord to this impertinent, mordant portrait of a corroded society badly in need of reclamation.

August 1, 2016

The day after her father dies, Penny Baker is evicted. A shaman whose "Last Resort" clinic in Brazil eased wealthy clients through their final hours in a haze of herbal supplements and native ritual, Norman Baker ironically suffered the American way of death, with tubes and transfusions in a Manhattan hospital bed. To Penny's mother, Amalia, Norm's passing is a nuisance; to her half-brothers, Matt and Patrick, it's a potential business venture. But for Penny, who cared for him at the end, it's the loss of her North Star. Just out of college, jobless, and homeless, Penny buses out to Jersey City in search of her grandparents' abandoned house, where she discovers a thriving community of disparate squatters and a place that feels like home. Penny's dilemma? How can she embrace the causes of her anarchist friends, remain loyal to her dad's memory, and become a wage-earning adult? VERDICT Zink, whose novel Mislaid entered the literary scene amid effusive praise, writes with tongue firmly in cheek. Her jaded worldview, leavened by a well-honed sense of the absurd, reveals itself as she skewers millennials and boomers alike for failing to live up to their once tightly held convictions. [See Prepub Alert, 4/18/16.]--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016

A quirky, sharply observant chronicler whose tales of unexpected domesticity say a lot about contemporary society, Zink won enthusiastic fans--not to mention several best book nods and a National Book Award long-listing--for last year's Mislaid. Here, rebel-with-a-difference Penny Baker resists the overblown idealism of her parents (mom's from a South American tribe, while fading hippie dad's still famous for his psychedelic healing center) and the questionable charms of her half-brothers to lead a conventional life. But when she meets a bunch of anarchistic young rebels cheerfully squatting in the house she inherits on her father's death, Penny blazes up with passion, commitment, and a sudden sense of belonging. The house, by the way, is nicknamed Nicotine because these edgy Millennials are committed to smokers' rights. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

A rich, rewarding tale of love, rebirth, and chewing tobacco from the author of Mislaid (2015) and The Wallcreeper (2014).When we first meet Penny, she's 12, naked, and smoking a cigarette in her father's sweat lodge in upstate New York. Eleven years later, she's an unemployed business school graduate sitting in her dying father's New Jersey hospital room. This loss devastates Penny in all the usual ways, and Zink's depictions of grief and--especially--the strange state of waiting for someone to die are honest and real and occasionally lovely. In one especially heartbreaking scene, Penny realizes that, the closer he gets to death, the less she and Norm have in common. But then: "The strength and courage they desire--and lack, both of them--are the strength and courage never to see each other again. Fear is something they have in common." This level of self-awareness is one of Penny's finest qualities as a protagonist. The daughter of a Jewish shamanistic healer and an indigenous Colombian orphan, Penny knows she's unusual. But she also accepts that being unusual isn't all that strange, which is why she finds a new family when she sets out to reclaim her father's ancestral home in Jersey City. Thrown together by the marginalization of tobacco users, the residents of Nicotine--the squat occupying the house where Norm grew up--are outre outsiders even in the outsider realm of activists and agitators. Penny is immediately smitten with the very cute and avowedly asexual Rob. When Penny's sociopathic half brother, Matt, becomes obsessed with another occupant--a polyamorous Kurdish poet named Jazz--they form an untenable tangle of relationships that can only end in destruction. The resulting disaster is spellbinding, but even the quiet moments here are delightful because Zink does such an incredible job of depicting weirdos as real, smart, vulnerable, complicated people. Social satire with a sharp wit and a big heart. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
A rich, rewarding tale of love, rebirth, and chewing tobacco from the author of Mislaid (2015) and The Wallcreeper (2014).When we first meet Penny, shes 12, naked, and smoking a cigarette in her fathers sweat lodge in upstate New York. Eleven years later, shes an unemployed business school graduate sitting in her dying fathers New Jersey hospital room. This loss devastates Penny in all the usual ways, and Zinks depictions of grief andespeciallythe strange state of waiting for someone to die are honest and real and occasionally lovely. In one especially heartbreaking scene, Penny realizes that, the closer he gets to death, the less she and Norm have in common. But then: The strength and courage they desireand lack, both of themare the strength and courage never to see each other again. Fear is something they have in common. This level of self-awareness is one of Pennys finest qualities as a protagonist. The daughter of a Jewish shamanistic healer and an indigenous Colombian orphan, Penny knows shes unusual. But she also accepts that being unusual isnt all that strange, which is why she finds a new family when she sets out to reclaim her fathers ancestral home in Jersey City. Thrown together by the marginalization of tobacco users, the residents of Nicotinethe squat occupying the house where Norm grew upare outr outsiders even in the outsider realm of activists and agitators. Penny is immediately smitten with the very cute and avowedly asexual Rob. When Pennys sociopathic half brother, Matt, becomes obsessed with another occupanta polyamorous Kurdish poet named Jazzthey form an untenable tangle of relationships that can only end in destruction. The resulting disaster is spellbinding, but even the quiet moments here are delightful because Zink does such an incredible job of depicting weirdos as real, smart, vulnerable, complicated people. Social satire with a sharp wit and a big heart.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016
Zink's (Mislaid, 2016) latest novel explores the amorphous complexity of family identity and human connection amid modern-day social perceptions. Penny is born in Brazil to young Amelia and older Norm. After her father's traumatic death, Penny, now in her early twenties, is sent to Norm's childhood home in Jersey City to oversee the eviction of longtime squatters. She discovers that it has become part of a group of abandoned properties now housing diverse groups of activists. Rather than revealing her identity, Penny falls in with the residents, moving into a nearby house and engaging in the philosophical debates and actions of the collective. When Penny's arrogant half brother, Matt, catches wind of the situation, he takes matters into his own hands, and everything becomes more complex when he falls into an intense liaison with Penny's housemate. Meanwhile, Penny navigates deepening connections with fellow residents, particularly the easygoing Rob, while being besieged by questions about her unconventional family. Zink's heady, witty novel traverses diverse perspectives and intentions, offering rich explorations of the characters' varied conflicts and subversive lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)