The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Need by Nik Cohn
Laurie Champion

Nik Cohn. Need. Secker & Warburg, 1996. 298 pp. £15.99.

Amid cockfights, topless carwashes, and acrobatic acts, the four main characters of Nik Cohn’s novel Need meet together in a Manhattan zoo where exotic birds and snakes are kept. The jobless Willie D is concerned because he can’t afford even a pair of cheap sneakers to fulfill a shoe fetish based on the assumption that shoes steer him in the right direction. Anna Crow, who began topless dancing when she was seventeen, now delivers Verso-o-Grams for special occasions. After a career as a psychic, where she repeatedly envisioned deaths, Kate Root now cares for birds and snakes, cuts hair, and watches soap operas. John Joe Maguire of Scaith-na-Tairbhe, whose father had been a prizefighter, has a birthmark shaped like a black swan on his thigh.

These characters seek physical and psychological gratifications for various needs, yet they can never quite articulate what they seek. Much like James Joyce, Cohn portrays his zany characters’ raw biological acts: belches, farts, and orgasms. Beyond their physical urges, however, the characters learn to relinquish undefined psychological needs. The elementary principle of knife throwing, letting go, symbolizes the novel’s message that truth is simple and the antidote to need is belief. When Willie finally throws a knife, he cuts his new shoes; but he later finds satisfaction in one simple pair of boots, footwear that contrasts the Brunswick Glides and Gucci loafers he earlier possessed. Symbolically, he has learned the philosophy of simplicity. Realizing that fulfillment comes not from dance and sex but from healing others, Anna decides to become a nurse. John Joe recognizes that personal past histories create baggage we must discard. Symbolic of the characters’s discoveries, near the beginning of the novel, Kate releases from its cage a bird; after the symbolic Armageddon, where Manhattan turns to darkness, chaos, and smoke, the spiritually renewed bird returns.

Cohn defies traditional use of plot and offers instead a smorgasbord of characters and scenes that are described with wry wit and clever puns. Allusions range from cheesy country western tunes such as Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” to well-known literary works such as those by Yeats, Joyce, and Keats. Frequently, humorous twists to clichés stand alone in paragraphs that contrast surrounding serious philosophical musings. Cohn’s skillful use of language makes Need a delightful combination of humor, satire, and philosophy. [Laurie Champion]