Nick – 4 Star Book Review

I participated in the book trailer social media Blitz for Nick by Michael Farris Smith in late 2020 and eagerly accepted an eARC of the book shortly thereafter. When the publisher once again contacted me ahead of publication wondering if I would like to participate in a review tour for the book, well of course I said yes! Thank you very much for the opportunity, No Exit Press. None of this has influenced by review. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

In preparation for this review, I did also jump at the chance to review the audio ARC of the latest recording of The Great Gatsby last month and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

About the Book

NICK
by Michael Farris Smith

Published 25 February 2021
No Exit Press

Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Count: 304
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Critically acclaimed novelist Michael Farris Smith pulls Nick Carraway out of the shadows and into the spotlight in this fascinating look into his life before Gatsby
Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg, and into Gatsby’s periphery, he was at the center of a very different story- one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I.

Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed firsthand, Nick delays his return home, hoping to escape the questions he cannot answer about the horrors of war. Instead, he embarks on a transcontinental redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance- doomed from the very beginning- to the dizzying frenzy of New Orleans- rife with its own flavor of debauchery and violence.

An epic portrait of a truly singular era, and a sweeping, romantic story of self-discovery, this rich and imaginative novel breathes new life into a character that many know, but few have pondered deeply. Told with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to paralyze even the heartiest of Golden Age scribes, NICK reveals the man behind the narrator that has captivated readers for decades.

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My Review

My Rating: 4 Stars
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Everyone remembers Nick Carraway, the unreliable and oh-so-passive narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, but what did his first 30 years of life look like before he found himself renting next door to the mysterious wealthy party host? Michael Farris Smith set out to find out and share the answer with us. Now that copyright has lapsed on Gatsby I expect we’ll get a lot more retellings and spinoff stories, but this will be remembered as the first prequel story, and a strong one at that!

NICK gives us glimpses into plenty of different events and time periods throughout Nick’s life, from flashbacks to childhood, to wartime horrors and retreats in Europe, to reluctant wandering upon his return to the USA. The tone and emotions ride a rollercoaster up and down in line with the joys and horrors on Nick’s life and never quite let the reader settle into one extreme or the other for too long. This is absolutely one excellent possible backstory that formed the broken shell we meet in Fitzgerald’s book.

The difference between a 4 and a 5 on this book, or the reason it didn’t absolutely blow me away, aren’t really the book or author’s fault. They’re my fault. It’s about my expectations and how I imagined Nick’s earlier life (and later life.) I’m absolutely in camp queer when it comes to speculating on was Nick attracted to Gatsby’s lifestyle or was Nick attracted to Gatsby, and this prequel didn’t give any strong indications that Smith thinks that’s what was going on. I also wasn’t at all prepared for interludes into memories from childhood that chop up the narrative. I would have preferred to either start with childhood or skip it entirely and start with teen or adult Nick preparing to go to war.

This really is a great book, and I would recommend it broadly to fans of historical fiction, but I would caution lovers of The Great Gatsby in particular that this book may or may not live up to your expectations. Gatsby has been such a pillar in literature, so well studied and discussed over the last century, that I think at this point anyone who cares to know Nick’s story has already drafted their own backstory for him in some level of detail, and this may not reflect those individual visions. Go into this read with the expectations you set for a new, unrelated work or for fan fiction, whichever works best for you, and remember that while this is inspired by Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway, nobody can truly know at this point what Fitzgerald had in mind. This is one possibility and it’s very well written.

About the Author

Michael Farris Smith is the author of Blackwood (2020), The Fighter, Desperation Road, Rivers, and The Hands of Strangers. His novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, Southern Living, Book Riot, and numerous others, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. His essays have appeared with The New York Times, Bitter Southerner, Writer’s Bone, and more. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.

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