Book Review: "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"

By Modupe Alabi | VOX Staff

Courtesy of Random House

Boy in punk club asks strange girl to be his girlfriend for five minutes, girl kisses boy, boy kisses back, boy then meets girl…Ready. Set. Go.” Norah Silverberg, the heroine, didn’t realize she was ironically foretelling the next few eventful hours of her life as she imagined the potential flame they could spark after an impromptu make-out session with Nick O’Leary, the hero in the novel “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.”

The book, a mixtape-like tale of two punk rock-loving teens who fall in love, was co-authored by Rachel Cohn, who writes Norah’s parts, and by David Levithan, who writes Nick’s. Told in alternating chapters between Nick and Norah, the story starts at midnight on a Saturday and ends at sunrise over New York City the next morning. But it’s clear that Nick and Norah continue their romance past daybreak.

In the opening pages of the story, Nick and Norah seem uptight, but the reader soon comes to realize that Nick and Norah need each other as much as they begin to want each other. It’s as if both lives were on mute and one needed the other to turn the volume all the way up. The novel is characterized by frantic, doped-out teens who litter intoxicating punk-clubs, rock music and the bustling, ever-changing streets of Manhattan at midnight. The story is fast-paced, edgy and makes the ‘F’ word ubiquitous. A novel for people who love a good teen romance with a city street-smart twist, dry humor, this book is for people who see music further than tones and rhythms but as a manifestation of life, with awesome guitar riffs.

Though Nick describes himself as ‘the non-queer bassist of an average queercore (rock music supporting homosexuality) band,” he’s anything but average. Hailing from Hoboken, New Jersey, he’s a passionate musician and lover, and a talented writer. This is hidden because he’s blinded lovesick by his sex-kitten ex-girlfriend, Tris (who’s also Norah’s love-hate friend) who dumped him as soon as he said, “I love you.” Cue Norah, the Jewish valedictorian princess from Englewood Cliffs and a record company CEO’s daughter. Otherwise, she’s a self-proclaimed “insufferable music snob” who has been dubbed both “frigid” by her best friend Caroline (the promiscuous hottie who’s drunk, dazed and confused throughout the story), and “heartless Tin Woman” by ex-boyfriend, Tal (the politically-active Israeli jerk).

The book is a little different from its 2008 live-action film counterpart of the same name, so film fans, rest assured. In the book, Nick appears more complex than his on-screen representation, and it’s this complexity that makes him attractive. In the film Nick’s character is highlighted by actor Michael Cera’s awkwardness. Though in the book, Nick has an appealing vulnerability to love, and is straightforward-yet-subtle at the same time.

The details of moshing punk music fans and junkies, the oscillating emotions between Nick and Norah and the story’s fast pace are all aspects of the book that make it hard for readers to put it down. Even the text seems cinematic. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” becomes a favorite book like one finds a favorite music record; you go through it over and over again until the words leave the pages and become a part of your own playlist.

Mo, 16, is a junior at Stephenson High who hopes to one day have a clean version of Nick and Norah’s midnight-in-the-city adventure.