When I checked this ambitious, 619 page first novel out from the library — Christmas week, no less — I didn't see the "7 Day Loan" sticker. Read a lot! Fast! No problem, though. Distilled to its essence, "The Nix" is about a 30-year-old son's attempt to find out why his mom abandoned him when he was 11. Part hilarious political and cultural satire, part heartbreaking family story, and encompassing over generations everything from the 1968 Democratic National Convention to video game addiction to Norwegian folk myths, Hill writes with the skill of David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen and John Kennedy Toole.