Nicotine: A Novel - Rilegato

“Extraordinary... Get the book for its crackling prose and razor-sharp wit, but ready yourself for its blitzkrieg of startling imagery.” (Village Voice)

“Undeniably excellent... Propulsive... This is Zink at her most heartfelt... Zink is an architect. She builds worlds that look a little like ours, but are wrong enough to make one think—really think, not just feel. ” (New Republic)

“Intellectually restless, uniquely funny...Propulsive, wonderfully stuffed with irreverent and absorbing banter...What’s most bootylicious in this novel is Zink’s warmhearted embrace of her subjects...One enjoys every minute with these obliging kooks....There may be some readers who want to make out with this book.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Smart and often very funny... Even while Zink skewers bohemian stereotypes — the affluent squatter, the chain-smoking environmentalist — she cares for her characters, imbuing them with complicated personalities, causes and sexual proclivities. Rich sensory detail, earnest dialogue and raw emotion...Absorbing, original... Belongs on your fall list.” (Chicago Tribune)

“She’s a deadpan comedian, her sentences funny yet plump with existential dread...You’re never tempted to put Ms. Zink’s novels aside. They contain so much backspin and topspin that you’re kept alert by the leaping motion... Her books are sexy... I could listen to Ms. Zink’s dialogue all day.” (Dwight Garner, New York Times)

“Even when Zink is being conventional, she’s exemplary. What makes her satire so exciting and so novel is the empathy of her writing... Exciting and provocative... She’s a singular figure in the literary landscape, and Nicotine is a perfect introduction to her brilliant, off-kilter world.” (Vox)

“The author’s best work... Zink is a wordsmith’s wordsmith. She’s sharp, wry, and might be a genius.” (The Millions)

“A hilarious perversion of the rom-com...Ms. Zink’s 2015 novel Mislaid delightfully sent up racial and gender mores, and here again she has affectionate fun tweaking the pieties of her cast of businessmen, cultists and activists. ...Nicotine is light reading in the best sense. Think Wodehouse for millennials.” (Wall Street Journal)

“[A] wild and nervy novel. Zink is a master of rapid character development, shifting perspectives, sex scenes and plot twists. ... “Nicotine” was so addictive it made me want to reach for a cigarette when I was done.” (Los Angeles Times)

“Zink writes some of the most comical lust between “love weasels” in contemporary fiction...[She] excels at scathing set pieces that caustically sum up places and local cultures...She gets her characters in motion, like mismatched roommates in a ramshackle house, and lets us enjoy watching them pinball around.” (Washington Post)