Customer Reviews

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Before I start the story that is Nick and Norah, I decided we needed to get some misconceptions out of the way first.

1) I don't live in Manhattan, so I won't understand what the characters are talking about. Wrong! I don't live in Manhattan--actually, I've never been farther East than Ohio, but I still got the gist of the story quite easily. Sure, I might never have visited Times Square, but I've been on the Square in my hometown (population 3,400), and the same types of things went on there that go on in New York.

2) This book is full of cursing. Right! And if you haven't heard a lot of curse words (do I really need to spell them out?), especially from the mouths of teens, in the last twenty years or so, I'm guessing you live on a commune somewhere in the middle of Utah.

3) This book only covers one night. Right again! And oh, what a night it is! One night, filled with all the ups, downs, and sideways that being a teen in todays world brings.

Now that we've got that out of the way, we can concentrate on the story. It's about Nick, a bassist for a band with an ever-changing name, who recently had his heart broken by a b***h named Tris. It's about Norah, an uber-complicated girl with more issues than The National Enquirer, who not too long ago had her virginity broken by Tal. And then there's Caroline, and Jessie, and Uncle Lou, not to mention Dev and Thom, and Randy from Are You Randy?, and Hunter from Hunter. There's beer, and there's drugs, and there's sex, although none of it is Nick or Norah's.

There's heartbreak, and devastation, and lust, and forgiveness, and acceptance. There's parents to deal with, and friends to attempt to deal with, and a boy and a girl who wish that, just once, they could be themselves and not deal at all. There's a love story, and a song about a girl on a street in the middle of the night, and a band that just might make it big, and a car that won't start, and a subway ride that requires jumping the turnstyle.

There's love, and anger, and disappointment, and desperation, and redemption. There's life, and then there's Nick and Norah. There's a story here, and you need to read it.

I'm not a teen (and I can't say as I miss being one), but I recently read Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and loved it. It's gritty, fast-paced, angst-ridden without being whiny, and full of fun facts about pop music from several decades.

The characters of this book are vivid, the timeline oh-so-brief, and each scene so well-constructed that despite the fact that it's not a long book, it is completely fulfilling. It approaches the lives, interests, and concerns of teens today from a much more contemporary viewpoint than I've read in any other books (for instance, private versus public schooling, alcohol and drug use, homosexuality, my car's a piece of crap ...) . The true beauty to the book, though, is that the authors have pared all of the language down to the necessities instead of cluttering it up. It was fast read for all that it was thought-provoking, and although I doubt most young readers have any idea about the original Nick and Nora, I think Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is definitely worth their time.

This book is great! Yes, it's set in the late night music/club scene in New York. But that's not what it's about. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is about what it feels like to meet that special someone, and be interested right away, while having doubts, and baggage, and difficulties that get in the way. All compressed into a zany time period of one very long night. It reminded me a little bit of the movie Dazed and Confused, and I can totally see it working as a movie.

Through the alternating chapters, we explore this falling in love from both sides. We see each person's doubts, and how the other is perceiving him or her at the same time. It's a bit confusing sometimes - I had to stop and think "who's talking now?", because both narratives are written in the first person. But mostly it works.

I wouldn't recommend this title for younger kids, or for people who are easily offended by profanity or sex. The "f" word features very prominently, and there are some pretty overt (though not not unduly graphic) sexual references. And yet, if you can get past that, the two main characters are actually quite straight-laced. They don't drink, they don't do drugs, and they both want stable, monogamous relationships. I think that the language is the authors' way of keeping Nick and Norah, especially Nick, from being too good to be true.

There's poetry in some of the text, too. And not just when Nick or Norah is thinking about song lyrics. Here is an early throwaway line describing Nick shifting gears from performer to person taking down band equipment: "I go from chords to cords, amped to amps." And here's Norah, musing on her own upbringing:

"My parents have also done me the misfortune of being happily married for a quarter century, which no doubt dooms my own prospects of ever experiencing true love. Gold is not struck twice."

I love that. "Gold is not struck twice." There's also David's description of moving through the crowd at a club, holding Norah's hand:

"The crowd is pressing in on us and the bassline is revealing everything and we are two people who are part of a lot more people, and at the same time we're our own part. There isn't loneliness, only this intense twoliness."

I love that, too. "Twoliness." The language aside, what makes this book special is the way that the authors are able to capture those feelings and insecurities that teenagers have when they first fall for each other, especially the feeling of euphoria. I could cite dozens of examples. But I'll limit myself to three:

"Nick stands up and offers me his hand. I have no idea what he wants, but what the hell, I take his hand anyway, and he pulls me up on my feet, then presses against me for a slow dance and it's like we're in a dream where he's Christopher Plummer and I'm Julie Andrews and we're dancing on the marble floor of an Austrian terrace garden. (Norah, page 55)"

"If Caroline was here, she'd give me her Patience, Grasshopper speech. But she's not, and I am left to wonder on my own: How does this work, the getting to know a new guy without revealing too much desperation for his undivided attention? (Norah, page 68)"

"No--when the rain falls you just let it fall and you grin like a madman and you dance with it, because if you can make yourself happy in the rain then you're doing pretty alright in life. (Nick, page 156)"

While most aren't as fully fleshed out as Nick and Norah, several of the other characters are intriguing. Tris, Nick's painfully recent ex-girlfriend, turns out to be more multi-dimensional than she seems at first. Norah's dad is a high-powered record executive, but also reveals himself to be a caring father and loving husband. There's also a cross-dressing Playboy bunny/bouncer and a gay playboy band member who each offer words of wisdom to Nick. One thing that I really like about this book is the way that the sexuality of the gay and cross-dressing characters is treated completely matter-of-factly by both Nick and Norah.

So, here's what I have to say about Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It doesn't matter if you're not into music, or you aren't interested in the New York club scene. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, gay or straight. If you've ever met someone and been interested in them from the first glance, or if you've ever wondered what it would be like to meet someone and click right away, you should read this book. It's a perfect read for young adults. And for the censors who might fear that the language in the book will be a bad influence on kids, I say, "they have heard these words before." And maybe the straight-laced, non-drinking Nick and Norah, high on meeting each other, will have a positive influence instead.

What there is to love about this novel is immediately apparent. The authors evoke a music scene that is powerful and invigorating. They also succeed impressively at representing the current generation of emo-punk kids. Near the beginning, Norah comments that Tris's outfit is all Hop Topic poseur; soon after, Nick thinks about how it makes her look like a sexy superhero. It's these wonderful, zeitgeisty disconnects that almost make the writing style worthwhile. Did you catch that almost? Uh huh...

The trouble with a co-written book is that half the writing I liked a lot (Cohn's) and half the writing I damn near hated (Levithan's). I like wordplay. I do not, however, like it nearly as much as Levithan. After about ten pages of his incessant wordplay, I wanted to stab myself in the face. Also, for such a slender novel (even for a teen novel), there was a hell of a lot of ramble. I suspect this is a result of the unplanned, back-and-forth way the novel was written. (There's also a bit near the end where the fourth wall is all but demolished: Levithan screws up the continuity on who exactly Dev's boytoy is; Cohn uses Norah as a mouthpiece to ream him about it during the next chapter.) Perhaps inevitably, after the first few chapters, the story descends into "and then this happened, and then this, and then, and then, and then". I like novels to have a tight story arc. This novel was a sprawling mess.

Billed as a love story, it's really not. There's about 30% falling-in-love stuff. The rest is angst about ex-boyfriends and -girlfriends. Realistic? Sure. Fun to read? No. There are chapters and chapters where Nick and Norah do nothing except obsess over their exes. It would be more forgivable if what love stuff there was didn't veer into rather cloying, romance novel territory. At a climactic moment, our adorably alternative protagonists cement their love by... kissing in the rain. Seriously?

The thing to love about this novel is how well the authors inhabit a generation. However, my issue with the novel is that it tries so hard to be original, but fails. It's only a stale story rebranded for a new generation.

personally this book captured the true reality of being a teenager. from the cursing, so the temptation of the opposite sex. i thought this book was fascinating, and i never wanted to put it down. i loved how i got to see through both nick and norahs eyes. ive read it more than once scince ive bought it and i have recomended it to all of my friends, who also loved it.

NICK & NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST is pretty much the best book ever!!!! Why you may ask? Well let me explain...

Norah meets Nick at a club in downtown Manhattan and vise versa. Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend for 5 minutes to get back at his ex who broke his heart. Five minutes turns into the whole night as they go around Manhattan together. I don't want to ruin the plot for you but the ending is really sweet...and the whole book is.

David Levithan and Rachel Cohn really capture the essence of love and lust and all of the feelings in between.

I recommend this book for anyone who has ever thought that love at first sight was impossible because this book makes me believe it aside from Romeo and Juliet of course...

This book actually surprised me. I just thought that it would be some boy meets girl, girl likes boy, they hook up. blah, blah, blah. But this book is different it shows how two insecure people who have been hurt so many times when it comes to love, and it's absolutely belivable. I read most of Rachel Cohn's books so I knew I could relate to Norah, but I've never read anything by David Levithan, but after this book I'm definately checking him out. Oh, and the ending is well deserved even though it makes you wish for a sequal, which may come!

wait wait! that can be the name of their band!

i thought i would like this book, i really did. i usually like books with drinking and cursing and sex in it but when the two main characters are sexually frustrated overly self conscious, trying way too hard to be ironic teenagers... not so much.

the authors just tried too hard to sound like teens, they really over did it. Conversations about having 'three-ways with E.T.' and going to see sex-shows where people dressed up as nuns make out. Is that like supposed to be shocking and edgy or something? (The whole E.T. thing actually made me sad, E.T. is such an innocent child-like creature, did the authors really need to vulgarize it for cheap laughs? over and over and over again?)

i give it two stars because the overall plot and the alternating viewpoint of the two characters written by two authors was original and interesting. But the execution was AWFUL.

i'm 29, i don't have kids, i don't care whether 12 year olds read stuff like this or not (i say let them read it, why not?) i'm just saying, i personally did not enjoy this book. it felt like the authors were bending over backwards trying to impress the reader trying to show how cool and hip they are and instead looking like dorky fools.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan is narrated alternately by both Nick and Norah.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading this book. It haven't read many books written by two different authors, but I was thrilled by how this book turned out. Both Nick and Norah were great characters, and their voices were incredibly unique. They were very developed as individuals, and I really enjoyed getting their separate interpretations of the night's events.

But, really, I kind of expected them to be strongly individual, because they were written by different authors, so it makes sense that they would sound different. What I thought was even better than Nick and Norah's characterization was the secondary characters, and the story arc. They both remained consistent throughout the whole story, regardless of who was actually narrating. The story didn't feel like it was being told in two different ways, like it often does when you have two people trying to tell the same story. It flowed and moved well, and read like one fluid story with two main characters/narrators. And, the secondary characters were each individual and unique, even when they didn't have a lot of face time.

It was a really fun story, if a little improbable. I had a hard time believing some of the things they went through would actually have happened, but once I got over that, I did enjoy the story. A lot of their silly antics made me chuckle a little to my self, or smile and there is just enough reality in the story to make it (almost) relateable. I enjoyed their reactions, thoughts and emotions, and thought the story had an almost whimsical quality that made it really fun to read. Except-

I probably would have given the story 4 stars if it wasn't for the over use of the f-word. I hate that word. However, I understand that it's used fairly regularly by a lot of people. Even though I don't like the word, I understand it's used, and therefore can read/enjoy a story that uses that word. But, when it's written on almost every page, often multiple times per page, I find that I have a difficult time enjoying the story. I don't know anyone who uses any word that often. It's a little bit like it jolts me out of the story every time I read it. I can usually ignore it, but not when it's used that many times. And, I've felt this way before about certain other authors overuse of other words too. The fact that it's the f-word just makes it worse. So, both authors' prolific use of the f-word really got on my nerves. It made it really hard to enjoy the story, because I kept wishing they would use a different word. Seriously, I don't think it's really that hard to find a different (read-better) adjective/adverb/noun/verb than that one. Mix it up a little!

A fun read... Has it's strange moments. I always love to read the origin of movies. Suits a young audience: Teens to early twenties. A Unique writing style is shared between the two authors and they play off one another well.