NICK

If you're going to take one of the greatest novels ever written - one that would feature on many readers' top ten list - and then take its narrator and write a prequel, you need to have a lot of self-belief and probably a thick skin. If you're then going to pull it off, you need ability by the bucket load. It's much to the credit of Michael Farris Smith that he's managed to produce a wonderful novel that ought to satisfy the vast majority of Gatsby fans and I hope this will bring him to the attention of the wider audience his talents deserve.I've read Gatsby so many times I've lost count and will admit to a touch of trepidation when I first heard about this attempt to muscle in on Fitzgerald's territory, so to speak. The thing about Nick Carraway, the genius of Fitzgerald's creation, is that he is a shadowy narrator who describes everything that happens while giving very few concrete details about his own past. Fitzgerald leaves it to the reader to pick up tiny clues here and there to flesh out a character from very little in the way of biographical data and this means that the Nick I've come to know may be very different from the perception of others. There had to be a chance that jarring notes in this prequel would prevent me from engaging as I would like to with the book as a whole.I need not have worried. Michael Farris Smith has, from my perspective, been absolutely faithful to the original. The horrors of combat in the early part of the book, the tragically missed opportunity for a meaningful relationship in Paris and his inability to take that one big step towards a very different type of commitment in a raucous New Orleans all gave me an insight into what might have produced the somewhat withdrawn, almost tentative young man who hovers on the fringes of the lives around him without really engaging and committing himself. He has learned that life is safer on the fringes. Here we have an observer who, as if mirroring Gatsby, is doing his own share of roaming in search of an ideal that, like the green light at the end of the dock, is always tantalisingly out of reach. I often wondered what his life might have been like before he fell under the spell of Jay Gatsby and now have an entirely plausible explanation which throws up nothing that I found incompatible.I'm going to read Gatsby yet again on the strength of this. I'm sure many others will do the same.

Interesting idea to take the Nick Carraway narrator of the Great Gatsby and give him a background from the Mid West of USA to the first world war horrors in France, a journey that takes him from the impact of his mother's depression growing up in a stifling small town to suffering the traumatic effects of the war, a journey that sees him lose and then search again for his wartime first love, experiences that shape his sympathetic relationship with Gatsby.

‘NICK’ by Michael Farris Smith is a prequel to ‘The Great Gatsby’ that explores Nick Carraway’s life before he moved to West Egg and entered Gatsby’s sparkling world.It follows Nick as he serves in the Great War, first in the trenches and then in the tunnels as a Listener. Traumatised by his experiences, he delays his return home. He first travels to Paris, where he is swept up in a whirlwind romance, and then on to New Orleans.In his Foreword Farris Smith shares his experiences of reading ‘Gatsby’ over the years and how his perception of the novel changed as he matured. He was particularly inspired by this remark by Nick in the original: ‘I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade.’.So from the very few details provided about Nick’s background, Michael Farris Smith, himself an expatriate for a time, decided to write Nick’s backstory.He completed ‘NICK’ in 2015, though due to copyright restrictions it was unable to be published until January 2021, when ‘The Great Gatsby’ entered the public domain in the United States. Given this, ‘NICK’ is bound to be the first in a number of novels seeking to reimagine ‘The Great Gatsby’. I thought that it was a good character study that expanded on Fitzgerald’s novel while respecting the original text.Although I am not familiar with Michael Farris Smith, he is clearly an established American author. I felt that he did well in portraying the period settings in France and New Orleans as well as powerfully conveying the stark horrors of trench warfare.The cover of ‘NICK’ is very striking and echoes the iconic cover of the first edition of ‘The Great Gatsby’ by Francis Cugat titled ‘Celestial Eyes’.3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Farris Smith is a talented author. His writing evokes atmosphere and emotion in equal measure. This book is no exception. In particular, the suffering of the men in and after WW1 are clearly portrayed and it’s horrible to read about the consequences of human trauma, caused by others, in war.The writing is an unusual style and will not appeal to some readers but it is this style that adds to the drama of the text.My thoughts are that the book should be read as a life journey of a man named Nick, the Great War and the consequences of suffering. (I read The Great Gatsby at school and cannot remember the storyline let alone the narrator who this is based on)A thought provoking novel and recommended.

This is the nastiest, most horrible book I have ever read. It started off with a graphic description of life in the trenches in WW1 and that was acceptable if you have a strong stomach, but degenerated into a disgusting, violent account of Nicks life after returning to America. A waste of my time and money.