"Before you said you were lonely. Now you're saying you were alone. It's not the same thing."
Author: Michael Farris Smith
# of Pages: 204
Rating:
Nick by Michael Farris Smith was one of my most anticipated book releases of 2021. F. Scott Fitzgerald is known to all as the author of one of the greatest American novels of all time. I might be one of the few high school students who can say that they enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby in English class. There was something about annotating for metaphors and imagery that made the required reading more enjoyable. The Great Gatsby is told in the first-person perspective by Nick. He describes the events he is experiencing as they happen (even though he is writing this book in the future), but for the most part, he disappears into the background, revealing the world around him. The title is The Great Gatsby, so the book is not about Nick, but instead how he was a part of Jay Gatsby’s story. We only get bits and pieces of information about Nick’s past, enough for us to understand why he is narrating the book, but not enough. That is the mystery of The Great Gatsby. The main reason why I was so excited about Nick was because it is all about Nick. We finally get to hear about who Nick was pre-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. Charged with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to paralyze even the heartiest of golden age scribes, Nick reveals the man behind the narrator who has captivated readers for decades.
(Fun Fact: F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a short story called “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which was then turned into a movie, and happens to be one of my favorites of all time)
This book is told through the point of view of a 3rd person narrator, one who is not a character in our story. At first, I was a little upset because I thought it wasn’t going to be reminiscent of Fitzgeralds writing styles. Not having the book be from Nick’s perspective changes the atmosphere of the story completely. Once I got farther into it, it did not bother me because I realized this perspective was essential. As much as the story is about Nick, Smith wrote it this way so that we can peer into the minds of every character. I never comment on metaphors or similies in books because I am no literary genius, but Michael Farris Smith was throwing them in left and right, and it was BEAUTIFUL! Very reminiscent of Fitzgerald’s writing. I was underlining my favorite quotes and circling my favorite moments to look back on in the future. There weren’t nearly enough extended metaphors that were equivalent to the green light or the eyes or the entire idea of Jay Gatsby, which made me a little upset when finishing.
Let’s talk about the cover art for just one second: WOW! The iconic cover of The Great Gatsby will forever be ingrained into my brain. The real identity of the eyes on the cover is unknown but thought to be either Doctor T.J. Eckeburgs from the billboard of Daisy’s eyes. In any case, it’s a cover you can’t miss. The same goes for the cover of Nick. The deep blue background, gold lettering, and giant eyes are so alluring and stare right into your soul. This cover brought me back to English class junior year. Such a simple addition that made the reading just a little bit more memorable!
There are a few things I wish Smith would have touched on in this book that wasn’t mentioned at all: 1) more about Nick’s parents and not just correspondence between them, and 2) Nick’s relationship with Mr. McKnee because if you remember that small detail in The Great Gatsby, it calls for a lot more context than was given by Fitzgerald.
My favorite part about Nick was the ending. I stayed up until 1:00 am to finish this book, and WOW, was it a ride right to the end. The last chapter is the perfect bridge between the two novels. Nick makes his way to the West Egg to begin his adventure in the bond business. He looks out to his backyard from his new cottage to see a fascinating, bright green light shining at the edge of a dock next door. A silhouette of a man is standing at the edge of the dock, looking out into the distance as if he is longing for someone across the way. I loved it. I got chills. What a spectacular way to come full circle. So it ends, and then it begins.
Is this what Fitzgerald imagined? Is this the backstory to Nick that was in Fitzgerald’s mind when writing his novel? After 100 years, The Great Gatsby is now public domain, which means anyone can write adaptations of graphic novels or fan stories whenever they like. Nick is the official prequel, but obviously, Fitzgerald isn’t here to write it himself. I am not sure how this book will impact my future reading of The Great Gatsby and if it is going to completely change how I see Nick, but we will just have to wait and see. Michael Farris Smith did Nick Justice, and even though it wasn’t the best book I have ever read, I can’t imagine anyone else writing this story better. Kudos to Smith for taking on the weight of such an iconic book in literature. He deserves the praise he is getting.
Quotes:
"He listened for her voice and he ran again and he began to grab at strangers though he knew they were strangers but he grabbed with the fraught hope that her face would be on the unfamiliar figure."
"As soon as you are alone, you are dead."
"He wrote his name. He wrote her name. He drew two stick figures standing next to one another. And then he fought the schoolboy impulse of drawing a heart around the stick figures and instead he only drew a line that connected the two names."
"Before you said you were lonely. Now you're saying you were alone. It's not the same thing."
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