Member Review

As a huge fan of The Great Gatsby, I wasn't quite sure what to make of this novel as it wasn't at all what I expected. Writing a backstory for Nick Carraway was always going to be a challenge as Fitzgerald gives us very little information about him, meaning that the reader can choose to relate to him in whichever way. I expected to see some of the Nick who, in The Great Gatsby, finds something tantalizing about glamour and wealth despite being simultaneously repelled by it, as well as a nod to his flakier, less reliable side. Instead Farris Smith focuses on another huge Great Gatsby theme: dislocation and loneliness. In particular, Farris Smith highlights how strongly and irrevocably the sense of belonging nowhere can affect soldiers returning from war, which he does very movingly and effectively. Through his fluid, rhetorical writing style he creates a series of tableaux describing Nick's love affair in Paris, his horrific experiences on the frontline and his angsty childhood back home. If I'm honest I found the first half overly descriptive, slow-going and lacking in actual plot. There was some plot later in the novel when Nick, unable to face returning to his hometown, spends some time in a ravaged Eastern American town and becomes embroiled in other people's adventures, thankfully picking up the pace and segueing more convincingly to the events and Nick Carraway of Fitzgerald's novel. All-in-all, I thought the novel was thoughtful and well written but not as compelling as I'd hoped.