Nick: A Review

Nick by Michael Farris Smith tells the story of Nick before he lands the job in New York and meets the great Jay Gatsby. What he experiences through the war and how he finds his way home. The plot wanders alongside Nick as he steps from one thing into the next, trying to find his way in a world where he’s expected to follow a path that he’s disinclined to follow.

When I first picked up this book a few years ago, I thought the premise was interesting. I liked Nick in the Great Gatsby, though I know a lot of people think he’s too passive. (I always thought that was part of the point.) This book explores that a little more: what happens when Nick isn’t passive and he chooses his own way? What kind of life does he value and pursue compared to the life he’s expected to live?

These are certainly questions worth asking about Nick Carraway, and I don’t think they were answered poorly. However, I also don’t think the plot builds him fully into the same Nick that tells us about Jay Gatsby. Part of that may be a difference in writing style. Though Smith mimics Fitzgerald well and should certainly be commended for it, he also makes the story his own. Part of it might be a difference in culture: Nick was built in the 1920’s, and to attempt to rebuild him a century later is a worthwhile attempt but ultimately doomed to fail, as I believe some of his context is lost in the crevice between contemporary and historical fiction.

We find the answers to the above questions throughout the novel, a slow construction of who Nick was into who he is when he encounters and befriends Gatsby.

So who is Nick Carraway?

This is the primary question of the novel. In part one, Smith establishes Nick as a listener. He values silence and reason but believes (mostly) in the goodness of others. He’s reserved as ever but occasionally impulsive. Especially when he gets in his own head and works himself into an existential crisis and panics. I think that’s a pretty relatable occurrence.

The book opens with Nick in his early twenties, young and in love but burdened by his duty as a soldier. And he has always been dutiful. But this relationship challenges that and makes him question whether duty truly is worth pursuing and upholding if he’s certain that happiness is just off the line he’s so carefully walking.

In part two, he starts to question himself and the nature of the world. After living through the war, he returns to the states and, on a whim, switches trains in Chicago from Minneapolis to New Orleans, where he meets several people that further challenge his character and assumed beliefs.

At first, he’s restless, wandering around town and uncertain about why he’s there or who he should be. Until he witnesses a catastrophe that triggers something not just in him, but through the whole neighborhood. Through the disaster, he meets another soldier that he feels obligated to look after.

Part three and four are about consequences and takes Nick through the care taking of his fellow soldier, where he learns the history of the neighborhood and some of its most prominent people: the soldier he’s caring for and his estranged wife, the intended victim of the catastrophe. Nick follows the neighborhood’s slow descent into chaos, one tragedy after another in the wake of its heart-shattering event. And, amid the slow descent, we begin to see pieces of Nick shift closer to the version of himself who meets Jay Gatsby.

Another question this books answers is why help Gatsby? Apart from the enthralling nature of the character and the fact that Nick wants to help his cousin, what would drive him to help them reunite? And that question is, I think, answered much more thoroughly and satisfactorily than the question about who Nick is. There are four total parts to the book, but essentially two story arcs. The first is Nick’s time in France as a soldier and the second is the impulsive and desperate trip he takes to New Orleans when he realizes he’s not ready to face his family yet.

In the first story arc, Nick is the one in love, and we learn about what Nick believes about love and what originally shapes his opinions. In the second story arc, Nick follows an estranged and antagonistic couple who refuse to speak to each other unless forced and who are adamantly against any kind of reconciliation, even when their estrangement harms others. These encounters shape his opinions further, culminating in a somewhat hopeful leave-taking.

All in all, I give this book four stars. It follows the literary traditions well and portrays a character who both is and isn’t the one we know from the Great Gatsby. And that’s as it should be, for the most part.

My primary concern with this book is that the story in New Orleans seems a little absurd to me. Not that it isn’t believable, as the historical context is well-established throughout the book. But something about how the story between the estranged couple unfolds seems a little unnatural. I can’t place my finger on what it is, and that bothers me. A lot.

Maybe you could read the book and tell me what it is.

Thank you for reading my review, and I hope you take the time to investigate this book for yourself! If you can, purchase from a small business or borrow from a library. The corporations don’t really need us, do they?