Nicotine: A Novel Summary
Nell Zink

Nicotine: A Novel Overview

Nell Zink's third person novel, Nicotine, tells the story of Penny Baker's search for meaning and purpose in the wake of her father Norm's recent death. After Norm passes, Penny loses her sense of self. Unemployed, depressed, and newly homeless, Penny throws herself into a haphazard anarchist community in Jersey City. Though her new friend group offers her a sense of community, it also complicates her understanding of her own needs and desires. Over the course of the novel, Penny simultaneously stifles her emotions with a network of distractions, and scrapes at the past for answers about her present circumstances. The narrative explores themes including, grief, companionship, and loneliness.