Excellent and lyrical writing. Thoroughly enjoyed Nick's character development and the story around him.

I'm not normally a fan of retellings or prequels based on characters in a book, but the Great Gatsby is favorite so I made an exception. I wish there had been more connection between this and the classic. I struggled with the writing style. I think the book was okay but wish I had had lower expectations going in.

The various descriptions of the settings in this book were the highlights for me. The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite classics so the nod to the beginning of the book in the end of this one was well appreciated.

I have lived in Long Island and visited New Orleans and Paris. Long Island was shown at its most beautiful and the other cities were described overall as depressed as the people who were stuck in it. Yes, there were moments of beauty in the Paris parks' or the New Orleans street lights, but overall the darkness of the war, hunger, PTSD, grief, despair and fear overshadowed any bit of escapism this book could have provided.

The most engaging parts of the book were the depiction of war and the love affair in Paris...Maybe it's from sitting with my own grief and craving a different kind of escape. Overall, I wanted to like the characters much more. They just seemed a bit torn to pieces by the war and in turn made desperately selfish decisions constantly. I know what influenced this book and I can't help but compare it to Gatsby. The writing was excellent, but I think I was searching for a different mood overall.

I had such high hopes for this novel, but I found myself disappointed. I often have problems with authors who extract a character from another novel and try to extend or analyze them. Since Gatsby is truly one of my favorites, I was disappointed in this novel.

The author fails to continue the special spirit of the original. I felt there was something lacking and too dark about this.

Thank you Netgalley for the book.

I’ve always loved rewrites or taking a character and reimagining a story. As a f Scott Fitzgerald lover I’ve read the great Gatsby over 100 times and love the movie adaptions. This was a great re-imagination. Fitzgerald himself would love it

Michael Farris Smith examines a classic story in new ways in Nick. This book is a perfect pairing with Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund, and reminded me of some of the places where my adult textual life began by reintroducing a classic work. The writing is inviting, and nostalgia punctuates this reading experience.

Michael Farris Smith shares the story of Nick, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, his life leading up the days when he moves next door to the Gatsby mansion. It opens as Nick is seated at a corner café in Paris where he is wont to spend his mornings, drinking espresso while the ”hours of his leave tick away and on the days when the sun filtered through the trees and fell upon the cathedral across the street it seemed to him that there could be no killing. There could be no war.” His memories occasionally turning to the ordinary moments of his childhood, his mother tending the garden, his father tending to things in the garage, sharpening a shovel or other tool, his neighborhood of ”sidewalks and shade trees” where houses were without much variation. A time and place where women were often seen in aprons as men were returning home from work, checking first to see what had been prepared for their supper, and then went off to change out of their white dress shirt and remove their tie, and have a moment or two to relax at the end of their hard day. A life that, for Nick, seems far removed from how he is spending his days when he is not on leave.

Life isn’t like that, not anymore, not even in Paris as he is on leave. He meets a woman there, where talk is minimal, as neither understands much of the language of the other. He has spent his week on leave with her, and every day she has told him I want to see you in the morning when you wake.

There is much about war, the terrifying moments of war, which he can’t bring himself to share with her, to tell her the way it feels when the ground shakes from man’s destruction, the memories of what he’s seen that stay fixed in his mind, the ever present concern if he will live to see another day, another moment.

And then the war is over, and he returns to the country of his birth, but an impetuous decision has him head to New Orleans rather than to his home, his parents home. War has changed him, and he isn’t quite ready for a return to that “normal” the hell he has been through and the nightmarish things he’s seen have forever changed him.

Eventually he will leave New Orleans, as there he finds another variation of a kind of hell, and eventually ends up as Gatsby’s neighbor. His journey has left him still somewhat shattered by his life’s experiences, a bruise that never seems to fade. MFS’s portrayal of Nick seems, to me, to be so close to how Fitzgerald must have imagined him, a man who seems wary of life and everything Gatsby represents.

A spectacularly imaginative portrayal of Nick, and his story, in the turbulent years of WWI, and his days before ultimately meeting Gatsby.



Pub Date: 05 Jan 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley

#Nick #NetGalley

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and author Michael Farris Smith for providing me with an ARC of Nick!

I am a huge Great Gatsby fan, so when I saw those familiar eyes looking at me from my computer screen, I may have squealed a little bit.

I have always found myself wondering about Nick; we don't really get enough of a backstory on him in Gatsby, so this is where this novel comes in. What a gift this is, truly. Nick is so very complicated and layered with so many intriguing details, and this novel allows us to explore all of those. It felt so wonderful to be back in this world, one of my absolute favorites. Don't go into this thinking it's a rewrite, it's not. This allows us to expand upon Nick's world before Gatsby came into the picture.

What a wonderful read! Thank you again for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this title!

I had really high hopes for the novel, as The Great Gatsby is such an iconic and fantastic novel. Sadly it was a huge let down. Not only did it not connect with Gatsby at all, other than setting Nick up as a soldier coming home from war, but it rambled on and on and on about characters and circumstances that amounted to a lot of dead ends. I completely missed the point of the New Orleans segment, and I think they Smith missed a huge opportunity to tie Nick to Daisy and East Egg. Sadly, the book had none of that in there.

My students read Gatsby every spring quarter and I really fell in love with Nick. What a fascinating concept and for Smith, it pays off. Nick is complicated and complex and his backstory is nuanced and layered. I’ve always had issues with Fitzgerald’s Nick and Smith’s novel helps to reconcile those tensions. I can’t wait to recommend this to friends, colleagues and students! It was a joy to be transported back into this universe. You won’t be disappointed!

I was intrigued by the idea of Nick Carraway before he got swept into Gatsby. This was not quite what I expected, and I can't decide if that's perfect or not. There is a lot packed into this: romance, PTSD, revenge, reconciliation, and loss.

Things I didn't like: frequent switches between first/second/third person, the almost dreamlike feel of Nick's relationship with Ella, the sheer volume of events that felt unlikely

Things I liked: a glimpse into Nick's possible motivation, his awkward nature, the descriptive writing style

If you're a Gatsby lover, why not? If you hated Gatsy, also why not? Hard to say what side of the line anyone might fall on.

*ARC through Netgalley

This was a really unique book. It didn't rewrite the Great Gatsby, instead it told Nick's story prior to Gatsby. From lost loves, to his childhood, to the trenches of the Great War, it fleshes out the least developed main character from The Great Gatsby. It also helps to fill in the blanks for why someone as seemingly no nonsense as Nick might have had a soft spot for J. Gatsby. I enjoyed this book, although I felt that the writing style was hard to follow along with. The plot was very well done, but despite the development of a character that I've probably spent far too long wondering about, I had a hard time fully committing to this story. One huge perk is that I don't think you have to have read Gatsby, or have read it recently, to appreciate and enjoy this book.

Not what I was expecting, but it was very good all the same. I'll be recommending this one to some of my patrons.

I don’t know if it’s fair to rate this. I didn’t like it but I was so excited about a Nick Carraway that I barely read the description and it just wasn’t what I’d hoped. But had I paid more attention, I probably would have been better prepared and perhaps not opted to read it.

*I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

One of the most famous bystander narrators in literature gets his own book. Well, yes, why not. This seems to be a genre onto itself, though I’m not sure what to call it. The appropriation of famous existing characters and subsequent reimagining of either their life of the story from which their come, told from a fresh perspective and all that. so, essentially, a highbrow (and oftentimes more PG) and infinitely more literary in most cases version of fanfiction. Frankly, I haven’t read too many of these, but the concept is familiar, the idea being is that some stories are so beloved, so ingrained in the storied literary past that there is an irresistible appeal to not just revisit them, but to spin them around, try viewing them at different angles, etc. But, of course, that wouldn’t quite work here. Great Gatsby is already told from Nick’s perspective. So instead this book takes us back in time, to before Nick Caraway set foot on Long Island and set view on a glittering party palace so tantalizingly close. Nick, a nice midwestern boy, with his life all laid out for him, refusing to essentially become his father, take over the family business, do the marriage and kids and picket fence thing, etc. That all seems too claustrophobic to Nick and so he ships off to fight in the war erroneously billed to end all wars. During those years in Europe he finds love, despair and too much death, but somehow survives physically unscathed. And yet still so restless, he delays returning to his family and sets off to travel the country. The journey takes him to New Orleans, which in so many way an essentially obverse side of Paris, a city that has scarred Nick’s soul so. Both are glittering, debauched, indulgent. And dangerous. In New Orleans Nick gets involved or gets between a bitterly acrimonious volatile couple and much of that chapter of his life is colored by those events, in fact much of those chapters of the book are colored by those events, they often steal centerstage right beneath Nick’s feet and he’s nowhere to be found, which is somewhat disorienting considering the way he owns the rest of the story. But eventually Nick finds his way and decides that these storied experiences of his life must be worth writing down and in need of a quiet (and far from his family) place, he rent a humble abode in West Egg. The rest is…well, a classic. And thus the man knows henceforth as old sport is born. So how does he fare next to the source material? Surprisingly well, actually. Farris doesn’t have Fitzgeraldian succinctness, but does have a certain linguistic charm, a panache for a turn of phrase. Thematically, both stories are quintessentially American dreams realized, the irresistible appeal of constant reinvention and the tragedy of success in various definitions and meanings of that concept. Wherein Gatsby is an inherently more romantic spirit, Nick seems to be driven to remake himself because he cannot stand life otherwise. Gatsby deliberately followed the socially predetermined steps to gain wealth and a certain sort of recognition and life that goes with that, the proper American dream, the only dream of a country so obsessed with money that the dollar bills have long become the only effective way to measure a man’s (or woman’s) worth. And so Jay Gatsby’s tragedy lies in things money can’t buy. But Nick is never driven by money, in fact time and again he turns down the financial stability of the family business, though for just about the entirety of the novel he is supported by his father and that very money. Nick is after something different and he goes about it in a very circuitous manner. A different idea of what making it might be, he wishes to tell stories, to relate narratives, the man is a natural born observer. It is, after all, what he is best known for. So overall…pretty good. I’ve read Farris before ages ago and didn’t care for him, only my love of Gatsby has lured me to this book and I’m very glad to have given the author a second chance. Tots worth it as the kids say. The book was somewhat uneven in the way it tended to drift away from Nick at times as discussed earlier, but overall a very good read. Not just as historical fiction, but also as a character driven one. Literary, elegant and engaging. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

When I first saw this cover it was just way too reminiscent of the cover of an edition of [book:The Great Gatsby|6519719] and I had mixed feelings about whether to read it or not. I’m not a fan of rewrites of classics so I was even more anxious since it’s my favorite book. [book:The Great Gatsby|6519719] has so much of my heart, that I have never been able to write a review of it, even after multiple rereads for fear of not being able to aptly describe what I feel about this book. I’m digressing, but maybe I’ll try one day. I was, however, intrigued with the description of this book, and I was drawn in because Nick Carraway is one of my favorite characters and I wondered what his “younger and more vulnerable years” might be like since Fitzgerald doesn’t tell us much about that. Thankfully, it’s not a rewrite. It takes the reader up to Nick’s arrival on West Egg and his first glimpse of Jay Gatsby in the last pages and I was not disappointed in the pages before that. I was fascinated with Michael Farris Smith’s imagined Nick, loved Nick as much, if not more, moved by the story and the fabulous writing.

The novel opens with Nick ending a leave in Paris and returning to the brutal, bloody horrors of WWI battle. While on leave, he meets and falls in love with a young French woman, Ella. A good part of the story focuses on Nick’s time in battle and his time with Ella. The descriptions are graphic and detailed with blood and body parts and fear and are not easy to read. So intense - as he chooses to work in the tunnels, digging, setting explosives and listening, but also thinking of Ella, with flashbacks to their time together, to his life growing up in Minnesota before the war. This is a third person narrative, yet so intimate and introspective. His father owned a hardware business and he assumes Nick will come into the business. They seemed to live a comfortable life, but it was a sad one for Nick as he tries to understand and deal with his mother’s recurring periods of “darkness.” One of the most poignant scenes is Nick reading to his mother at night during one of those times when she is bedridden and so overwhelmed by the “darkness” of depression. He later reads to Ella when nursing her back during a time that will haunt Nick.

After the war, Smith depicts a time of wandering and a lost Nick, avoiding going home to Minnesota for New Orleans. He dreams or has nightmares, I should say of the war, the bloody scenes, the cries for help that he is unable to answer. Gut wrenching. He dreams of Ella and is haunted by her and their story. He’s pulled into the circle of other characters whose lives are mired in booze and violence, and the trauma of the war. The time and place - New Orleans during prohibition - I felt as if I was there.

Having enjoyed the book, I still have a niggling feeling that this has messed with [book:The Great Gatsby|6519719] in some way and I can’t bring myself to give it 5 stars. It has me wondering how it will impact my next reread of it. I’ll be asking myself if this the Nick that Gatsby envisioned, with these heartbreaking times in his life. I read that in January, 2021, the copyright will end on Fitzgerald’s novel. The publication date of this book coincides with that . Who knows what rewrites we’ll find then ? I doubt that I’ll be reading any of them . But I’m glad I read this novel.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Little Brown through NetGalley.

I’m a huge fan of Michael Farris Smith. He is a ridiculously talented atmospheric and riveting author....
a phenomenal storyteller who gives much respect to his characters....( and to his women characters even if they are down & out, hurting and suffering something fierce).

I’ve read “Rivers”, “Desperation Road”, “The Fighter”, Blackwood”,
“The Hands of Strangers”, and now, most recently “Nick”.

I get excited when Michael Farris Smith comes out with a new novel....and “Nick”, exceeded my expectations. It’s one of my favorites.....( a three way tie with “Rivers” and “Desperation Road”).

ANYONE who is a Michael Farris Smith fan and/or a “Great Gatsby” fan, will be in ‘aw’ at how ‘real’ this story feels. Fiction? Couldn’t be....it just feels much too real!!

So YES, YES YES, this book is wonderful....with seamless, mesmerizing gorgeous prose. It’s a story about love, loss, heartbreak, war, duty, and deceit. There’s violence - friendships, alcohol, card games, seduction, sickness, graphic brutality, childhood memories, passion, goodness, evil, disappointments, hope, and moments of pure joy.
It’s sooooo thoroughly engrossing.....it felt like the pages were just turning themselves. I HONESTLY WANT THIS BOOK TO KEEP GOING....

Michael Farris Smith brilliantly stretches our imaginations — by giving us an opportunity to think about Nick Carraway, before “The Great Gatsby”. I was reminded that characters have lives before and after our stories.

Nick Carraway, was the young - flawed - narrator in “The Great Gatsby”. We knew Nick was from Minnesota... educated at Yale.... and fought in WWI.
Nick was a loyal friend to Jay Gatsby....even though he knew Gatsby was dishonest.

We are taken on a journey in “Nick”... and once you crack the book open, you won’t want to put it down.

A few sample teasers:
“Nick twirled the cigar. Set it next to his plate. The sun disappeared behind scattered clouds and across the square soldiers lay on their backs or on their sides and try to find sleep. Birds gathered and danced around scraps of bread or rice and those who did not smoke swapped cigarettes for chocolate. Nick’s hand began to tremble and he looked at it and said you don’t have to do this right now. You are sitting in a little French town with your stomach full and a nice woman has given you a cigar to go along with your cigarettes and your chocolate. So stop shaking and relax. Smoke your cigar”.

“He thought she seemed like something out of a story and that their meeting and then eating and now walking felt like the product of someone’s imagination but then as they moved along Boulevard de Clichy and up into Montmartre she seemed to merge into the physical world”.

This famous quote from “The Great Gatsby”, shows up again ( fitting), again in “Nick”.
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’”.

The scenes with ‘Ella’ are visual & ‘gut-felt’. Hard to get several scenes of my mind... ( not happening).
I’ll be thinking about this story - the characters - for a long time.

“Nick” got me so in the ‘everything Gatsby mood’.....> Paul and I are having a Saturday night ‘at home’ (sheltering-in-place), date > watching, “The Great Gatsby”, movie tonight.

Thank you Little Brown and Company, Netgalley, and Michael Farris Smith....( BIG THANKS)... loved it!!!