I LOVED THIS BOOK! It was witty, sarcastic, brilliant, beautiful, and hilarious! Cohen and Levithan take turns writing in first person with Cohen as Norah, the sarcastic girl who's a bit messed up and is trying out to figure out what a real relationship is all about, and Levithan as Nick, a heartsick boy whose obsession with music is the only way he can cope with heartbreak. Their story is sweet and simply the life-like confusion that all of us have dealt with in that final semester of high school.
 |
| From the movie adaptation from Columbia Pictures |
From Norah: "How does this work, the getting to know a new guy without revealing too much desperation for his undivided attention" (68)?
Nick: "When someone breaks up with you, their beauty - which you took such satisfaction in - suddenly becomes unfair. It's like that with Tris right now. She's even managed to arrange herself in the lamplight so the shadows hit in just the right way. It feels like a rebuke" (98).
Nick: "Singing in the rain. I'm singing in the rain. And it's such a f***ing glorious feeling. An unexpected downpour and I am just giving myself into it. Because what the f*** else can you do? Run for cover? Shriek or curse? 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 for in life" (156).
My one disappointment in the book is how much cursing there was. I was reading the book aloud to Stuart on our trip to Charlotte and back and after one passage, he looked over at me and said, "You've reached the limit of how many times you can say "f***" this year!" However, it's a realistic writing style for two young adults in the throes of growing up in New York City. They've probably been hearing horrible words like that since they were in elementary school. While it kept with the flow of the book, there were some parts with a bit too much! There's cursing to be realistic and there's tasteless, overused curse words.
If you don't want so much cussing, I definitely recommend checking out the movie. It's one of my favorites! Michael Cerra, even though I'll pick Jesse Eisenberg over you any day... in this movie, YOU ROCK, SIR!
Works Cited:
Cohen, Rachel and Leviathan, David. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.
1 comment:
this was an amazing book and movie. loved them both beginning to end.
Post a Comment