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.

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.

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.)