Nathan Hill

A "novel about a son, the mother who left him as a child, and how his search to uncover the secrets of her life leads him to reclaim his own"--

The Nix

Ashlyn Barrett

She whittled down her life until the only thing left to remove was herself. 

Which gives ammunition to certain pundits who say it shows how the radical liberal agenda has taken over public education. 

is there any truth in the over-dramatization of media? are we only fed lies bc of the blatant disregard of truth? 

This inconsistency is lost in the more sensational news items and is never fully investigated. 

It’s like he's experiencing his life at a one-step remove, as if he's not leading his life but rather assessing and appraising a life that weirdly, unfortunately, happens to be his. 

shows the extent of samuel’s self hatred… what is intended for good samuel sees as inauthentic 

The bear repeatedly opens and closes its arms in a never-ending loop that's supposed to be read as an embrace but looks to Samuel more like a deliberate and sarcastic clap, like the bear is mocking him.

Don’t be scared. It was the last thing she’d ever said to him. 

People love each other for many reasons, not all of them good. They love cach other because it's easy. Or because they're used to it. Or because they've given up. Or because they’re scared. People can be a Nix for each other.

They turned on the television and saw some news story about another goddamn humanitarian crisis, another goddamn civil war in some godforsaken place, and saw images of wounded people or starving children and felt a bright, bitter anger at the children for invading and ruining the only moments of relaxation and "me time" the neighbors had all day.

What kept people where they were, in their normal orbits? Nothing. There was nothing to stop anyone from, on any given day, vanishing. 

People said how brave he was. Like the more he could dodge the pain, the more heroic he was. This was a formula for living a life full of secrets. People constantly hid. It was a sickness maybe worse than the Parkinson's.

The Nix quotes

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