Nina: Adolescence [Hardcover]

Amy Hassinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2003

Fifteen-year-old Nina and her family are struggling to hold things together in the wake of the accidental death of her four-year-old brother several years earlier. Seeking refuge in her art, Nina's mother has painted a series of nude portraits of her remaining living child. As these haunting images go public, Nina is forced to deal with her burgeoning sexuality in front of a large and critical audience. With tension in the family reaching a breaking point, the portrait entitled Nina: Adolescence provokes a situation that will either be the engine of Nina's destruction-or the catalyst that enables her to finally surmount tragedy.

In this mesmerizing first novel, Amy Hassinger captures the cruelties and passions of adolescence with eloquence, tenderness, and a fearless sensuality. In Nina, she has created an unforgettable character-and launched a stunning career.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First-time author Hassinger excels at describing the title character's "limited and limiting" adolescent mind, but stage and screen actress Barron (Guiding Light; Amy Rules) truly brings this troubled character to life in this eerily seductive narrative. Told from the perspective of Nina Begley, who was with her younger brother when he drowned, the novel tracks the unraveling of a family. After the accident, Nina's father turns to drink and her artist mother, Marion, shutters herself in her room. To draw her mother out, Nina offers to pose for a painting and doesn't even balk when Marion asks her to pose nude. Hassinger perfectly captures the guilt and thirst for affection that compels Nina to pose nude and, eventually, to attend an art exhibit featuring her own adolescent body. Barron's vocal talents shine here, as well. Though she narrates the story in soft, muted tones, her voice takes on all the uncertainty and rebelliousness of youth when teenage Nina strikes back at her narcissistic mother by having a secret affair with Marion's 30-something ex-beau. All in all, Barron's skilled, sensitive telling nicely compliments Barron's expressive prose, making this an exceptional audio adaptation.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Booklist

After her younger brother drowned, Nina tried to pull her artist mother, Marian, out of her grief by offering to pose for a painting. Marian gradually became obsessed with chronicling Nina's emerging adolescent body in a series of nude portraits, and the paintings have become a success, earning Marian the notoriety she's yearned for. Now, at 15, Nina is embarrassed that her changing body is on view to the public. "They're seeing art, not porn," insists her mother, but Nina's father worries about "sexual predators." Hassinger's first novel explores these two provocative viewpoints through the intimate story of a family's unraveling. Nina is thrilled and disturbed by Leo, a thirtysomething art critic, and even after she learns about his secret history with her mother, Nina is coaxed into an affair with him. Hassinger makes Nina's loss of innocence and plunge into self-destruction chillingly believable. Her graceful, observant prose beautifully captures Nina's inner world--her guilt, yearning, anger, desire, and joy--while ruthlessly skewering the narcissism of ambitious adults. An unsettling and acutely sensitive debut. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (May 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399150625
• ISBN-13: 978-0399150623
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,362,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm an east coast transplant who's been living in the midwest for almost seven years, and I'm still getting used to it. Things I like: slower pace, affordability, friendly people. Things I miss: ocean, good museums and restaurants, abundance of options on a weekend (music, theater, dance, etc.), family. I have one daughter (4) and a son on the way, due in May 2006. Also a sadly neglected dog. And husband, not quite as neglected as the dog.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a painterly work, November 25, 2003

By 

Dan (Left Ventricle of the Heartland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nina: Adolescence (Hardcover)

Remember when your English teacher told you that the mark of a really good piece of writing was when the language was so masterfully employed as to be utterly beautiful and at the same time completely transparent, throwing the story into hyper-real relief without calling attention to itself? Your teacher was referring to Nina: Adolescence.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading, August 13, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nina: Adolescence (Hardcover)

I prefer to read than write so this is my first review on Amazon. However, my teenage daughter and I both finished Nina Adolescence and felt this new book merited a review so other people would be sure to read this book. The book was a fairly quick read, but the characters and emotion of the book remained with me. It is because the descriptions are powerfully realistic. The characters, while not too admirable were very real. I could imagine these people living in their Boston suburb, flirting with the urban art scene, searching for their own identities, and struggling with the emotions of parenting....the death of one child and the loss of the other to adulthood.

The author is perceptive and convincingly conveys the varied emotions surrounding growing up. While the story is told from Nina's perspective, Hassinger is sensitive to the emotions of the other characters. Even though Nina may not understand what they are feeling, the reader can see the complexity in their emotions and their lives. Hassinger's style and power are impressive. I've recommended this book to a number of friends and it has generated good, thoughtful discussion.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an absolute MUST read!!!!, July 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Nina: Adolescence (Hardcover)

Adolescence is hard enough--without your mother documenting every physical change you undergo, let alone naming you the nude subject of her art. This is just what Nina, the protagonist of Amy Hassinger's novel, Nina:Adolescence, must endure after her four-year-old brother, Dylan, suddenly drowns one afternoon in the pond behind their suburban-Boston home. Depressed and lonely after her son's death, Nina's mother finds refuge in her art, painting nude portraits of Nina and devoting her entire self to capturing the changes in her daughter: the rounding thighs, budding breasts, curving hip bones. Meanwhile, Nina is becoming more aware of her own sexuality, abetted by a cast of characters including Raissa, a friend from dance class, and her mother's old friend, Leo, an art critic with dubious intentions. A dancer, both conscious of her body and uncomfortable with her burgeoning sexuality, Nina must publicly deal with these changes as her mother wins praise for her haunting portraits.

In careful, exact prose, Amy Hassinger eloquently captures the delicacy of adolescence pulls off a compelling coming of age novel. What distinguishes this work is the humanity with which Hassinger writes--the way she understands and nurtures her characters. Instead of exploiting Dylan's death as a less polished writer might, Hassinger organically evokes the memory of his drowning as it was: quick, sudden, and still confusing after four years; his memory haunts the family like the portraits do all those who look upon them. This is an excellent book by an author whose voice I would follow anywhere.

Nina is a true piece of literary fiction that explores the themes of growing up, love, and family that are relevant to us all. I am an avid reader and this is one of the best books I have read in a LONG time. Do yourself a favor and buy this book TODAY!