Book Review of Nick and Norah’s infinite Playlist by Rachael Cohn &

David Levithan by Roger Miller



Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist is about hope. Hope cannot exist in the past. In the book Nick

and Norah are hopeless because they are stuck in past relationships with their ex’s. In fact when

hope is directed toward the past it becomes despair. Hope cannot exist in anything we already

have. Hope can only exist in the future. The Play list is a story about one existential night of

club hopping while Nick invites Norah to be his five minute girl friend. Existentialism –living for

the now-without different characters, plot and possible endings will only lead to a hopeless

existence. The book ends hopeful for Nick and Norah because their discovery of each other,

allows them to bury their past and hop on the A Train into the future. Hopefully together. The

highest and most noble thought in Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist is Norah’s concept of Tikkun

olam. Tikkun olan is the Jewish concept that means to repair or perfect God’s world. Norah has a

slightly different view when she states: “Exactly. Basically, it says that the world has been

broken into pieces. All this chaos, all this discord. And our job-everyone’s job-is to try to put the

pieces back together. To make things whole again.” (143) Then Nick comes up with insight when

he says: Maybe we’re the Pieces. . . Maybe, “ I say, “what we’re supposed to do is come

together. That’s how we stop the breaking.” This is a challenge to the reader to ask: is the

shocking and chaotic song that opens the book by Dev: “F____ the Man/F____ the Man/I

really want to F_______ the man” (1)-ever put pieces back together or will it just break the

world more. All of western thought says that what we think, what we sing, what we visualize

leads us to either wholeness or brokenness. Instead, it will be songs like Ludlow that Nick

composes, that will lead to Tikkun Olam. “Who will apologize for how we are? Who will navigate

when we’ve gone this far? Answer me Answer this Answers all the questions that I’m too afraid

to ask! (114) This is one of the books flaws it is in the young adult Genre and I am sure that the

authors youngest readers can not see that all the shocking graphic language and sexuality only

brings the brokenness to Nick and Norah’s world. While it is Nick and Norah’s love- expressed in

Ludlow is what brings wholeness. It saddens and angers me as a parent that this book received

glowing reviews, there has to better coming of age books for my children. Nick and Norah’s

infinite playlist receive praise for the realistic portrayal of the New York Club scene for Teens.

Here is what the School Library Journal wrote: The passion and intelligence of these characters,

along with the authors’ intimate knowledge and complete respect for their audience, make this

novel unique.” This is what I find objectionable the authors respect and seeming approval of the

club scene that has left Nick, Norah and their friends broken and angry. The pornographic world

they live in receives so much respect from the authors it glitters. Instead, of the raw reality of

Nick and Norah’s stalled life just like His Yugo, maybe because it has been immersed in a world

of filth. Parents only the strong of heart will be able to wade through the shocking world of Nick

and Norah’s vulgarity and sexuality with little redemptive value. Because of these factors it is

my opinion it is not a appropriate book for teens.

The concept of nobility has as much to with a person’s worldview as it does with his family tree.

To be noble meant to be “High-Minded.” It is not about arrogance or being exclusive it is a

person who seeks that which is most honorable. Literature is the doorway to the highest

thoughts , principles and motivations. So it saddens me that a popular book portrays young

adults first sexual experience in the Ice Room at the Marriot. It angers me that this book

accurately shows that many parents are absent in their teens journey to adult hood. It angers

me as a parent that many educators believe and teach books such as Nick and Norah’s infinite

play list will build a more noble and hopeful world.