131 Different Things

“Framed by Zinner’s sly photograpy . . . A boozy, grungy, alt-rock fable” from the collaborators of Please Take Me Off the Guest List (Kirkus Reviews).
 
When Sam, a bartender in New York, hears that his ex, Vicki, his one true love, has quit AA and is out drinking again, he embarks on a quest to find her. Sam and his sidekick Francis trek from dive bars to gay bars to rocker bars—encountering skinheads, party promoters, underage drug dealers, and dominatrixes—but they are always one step behind Vicki. It begins to seem like 131 different things are keeping the lovers apart. Before the night is over, Sam will have to wrestle with what he is really looking for.

Nick Zinner—who plays guitar in the three-time Grammy-nominated band Yeah Yeah Yeahs—provides the visual framework for this inventive novella with his intimate photography. Known for his essays and music writing for Noisey, Vice, and Penthouse, Zachary Lipez brings his pithy, multilayered, and self-deprecating voice to this debut work of fiction. The prose and photography are tied together in a playful taxonomic scheme by editor and art director Stacy Wakefield, the author of the novel The Sunshine Crust Baking Factory.
 
“Engaging . . . may conjure your worst, most desperate drunken memories of your 20s-30s, but in a good way! The story is illustrated with Nick Zinner’s beautiful photos. This is a must read for all music/nightlife loving New Yorkers, or folks who wished they lived here in the aughts.”—BUST, Holiday Gift Guide
 
“An entertaining pub-crawl saga like no other.”—The Berkshire Eagle