Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist – Rachel Cohn & David Levithan (2007)

misskleber
Jan 9, 2018
2 min read

Nick is on stage rocking the bass line of his bands new song when he sees his ex.

The Ex, looking hot, wonderful, and accessorizing with some new guy.

Norah is there, and for 5 minutes Nick needs to Norah to be his girlfriend.

With a single kiss the entire trajectory of the night.

Thus begins Nick & Norah’s epic adventure through one night in New York City.

Told from Nick and Norah’s alternating

perspectives, there is a beautiful humour to the alternating male/female perspectives, underlining how differently two people can interpret one action.

Nick’s baggage is Tish, Norah’s baggage is Tal and together Nick & Norah enjoy the turbulence of the exes who make them a little crazed and the night they spend together trying to sort themselves out.

I LOVED this book. It was really fast paced, given that all the action happens over the course of a single whirl-wind night the reader stays readily engaged in the story.

The only thing which I wasn’t so comfortable with was the language. Female characters tend to end sentences to each other with the word “bit@h,” which seems forced but also harsh and a little detrimental to woman-woman relationships.

There is also an extreme use of the word “f%@k,” though I didn’t find this nearly as troubling. At the beginning of one chapter it is used as an adjective, a noun, a verb, and an adverb to great effect.

I would strongly recommend this book, I would also strongly recommend against seeing the movie. There is no possible way that Michael Cera is Nick.