This trip initiates the great adventure of the book, in which Nick navigates violent saloons and unsavory characters in order to support a fellow ailing veteran.Īlthough Nick is independently an engrossing novel, it is most interesting to readers as a companion to Gatsby, investigating the cryptic life of Nick Carraway to a previously unmatched extent. Once Nick arrives in Chicago, he immediately resolves to take a train to New Orleans in order to avoid seeing his family once again. This choice, like all of his decisions in Nick and Gatsby, is made rashly and solely on gut instinct. In both locations, Nick cannot remain in one place for more than a short time he sometimes abandons Ella to go back to the front before his leave ends, and he frequently accepts dangerous and optional relocations in the military.Īfter an especially harrowing brush with death while at war, Nick escapes the conflict and decides to return home.

The first section of the novel alternates between Paris and the front of World War I, where Nick experiences intense isolation and depression. Nick opens in Paris, where the title character and his lover, Ella, enjoy a brief leave from action. This story offers a fresh perspective on one of literature’s most mysterious “objective” characters, artfully combining the original novel and historical events to create a compelling novel in its own right. Nick follows narrator Nick Carraway from World War I era France to New Orleans as he struggles to find motivation and purpose through war and trauma. Michael Farris Smith, a former finalist for the Southern Book Prize, seized this opportunity and released Nick, his prequel to The Great Gatsby, on January 3rd. On January 1st, 2021, more than ninety-five years after The Great Gatsby’s original release, the book’s copyright expired, opening up one of America’s literary paragons to free adaptation. Its complex and thought-provoking depiction of New York City in the roaring twenties has riveted generations of readers and inspired films, parties, and Falcon opinion articles. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925, is widely considered one of the greatest novels ever written.

Nick by Michael Farris Smith