The Great Gatsby seems to be a lot of people's favourite book. I didn't read it at school and only got round to it a few years ago so maybe I wasn't the right age to fall in love with it. It was good but was never going to replace the books which transformed my late teens (One Hundred Years of Solitude, maybe, or the Gormenghast trilogy). I was, however, interested to read Nick - a novel giving Nick Carraway the backstory which Fitzgerald never shared with us. This story takes us from the mud, death and horrors of the Great War to the heat and passions of New Orleans on the brink of prohibition via a fleeting but doomed love affair while on leave in Paris. Carraway's character in the Great Gatsby seems to be that of a practical, intelligent man of some integrity and we do have that confirmed to a large extent but he is also revealed to be so much more.  We see the details of his stifling Midwest upbringing, the tragedy of his Parisian love affair and the staggering brutality of war - these things all lead to the Fitzgerald Nick but it is the events in New Orleans which really fleshed him out for me. Heat, passion, booze all leading to pain, loss and, eventually, a future on Long Island...

Clevery written, this book drew me in word by word. It's an imagining of Nick pre-Gatsby and serves as a very suitable companion novel. Bound to become a modern day masterpiece. Heavy with atmosphere, it's simply stunning.

Nick by Michael Farris Smith Nick is the unofficial prequel to The Great Gatsby – about the life of narrator Nick Carraway before he moves to West End. You don't need to have read The Great Gatsby to read this book. In fact, I only read it last year and I didn't really feel a huge amount of connection between the two books. I found Nick's time in the war fascinating -especially his time in the tunnels. I think that really builds up our relationship with Nick and gives us a greater understanding of why he is who he is. His PTSD seems to, sadly, define his choices afterwards. But I really struggled with the New Orleans section. The whole hard drinking-violence- chaos- drugs- sex –squalor and misery theme, in my opinion, has been portrayed better in other books. This part just seemed like a big sack labelled 'New Orleans Tropes' that Michael Farris Smith just slung over his shoulder and carried around without delving into it and considering the elements in smaller and more considered pieces. So for me, the book started to rapidly lose my interest after Nick reaches New Orleans.

3 1/2 stars This is a very different story from that of The Great Gatsby as we are introduced to Nick pre West Egg. We learn very little of Nick Carraway in the Fitzgerald novel, considering he is so central to the story, but here, in a raw and emotion fuelled account, we read of Nick and his time in and after the Great War with glimpses into his early years. Rich in detail and highly emotive the story tells us of Nick’s account in the trenches of WW1 and really shows us the horrific and brutal experiences of the soldiers and the effects long term it has. Nick’s experiences and trauma are vividly written and the scenes taking place in the trenches are hauntingly described. This experience naturally effects him and we go on to read of his journey on to New Orleans where he almost stumbles into the violent lives of those that he meets. His detachment and bewilderment with the world, after his experiences, is wonderfully portrayed not only in the dangerous chances he takes both in the trenches and later on, but also in the chapters which follow him, on leave in Paris, where he meets a women that he becomes romantically involved with. As he tries to hold on to himself, I felt some of the same hazy, dreamlike narration that can be found in The Great Gatsby, and that same mix of innocence and ‘what the hell you only live once’ attitude I got from him on my first encounter. I listened to the author talk about the book last night, and it was mentioned how little he talks in The Great Gatsby, instead telling us all that happens. Watching Gatsby and his friends all the time. I felt this also in Nick, watching his mother, watching and waiting during the war, and to those around him in New Orleans. Always in amongst great activity, but never really taking part. A dark, moving and gripping story of a lonely and some what lost man, but one also not wanting to go home. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review

World War I is raging and Nick Caraway among the young soldiers who fight in France. His life threatened when he lies in the trench, he is looking for distraction in Paris on those few days he is off duty. He falls for a woman but times like these are not made for love. When he returns to the US in 1919, he suffers from what we today call post-traumatic stress syndrome. He does not know where to go or what to do with his life and thus ends up in New Orleans. The lively city promises forgetting but there, too, he is haunted in his dreams. I was so looking forward to reading Michael Farris Smith’s novel about Nick Caraway since I have read “The Great Gatsby” several times, watched the film adaptations even more often and totally adore Fitzgerald’s characters. Knowing that the plot was set in the time before Nick meets Jay Gatsby, it was clear that this novel would not be a kind of spin-off, but I wasn’t expecting something with absolutely no connection to the classic novel at all. Apart from the protagonist’s name and the very last page, I couldn’t see any link and admittedly I was quite disappointed since I had expected a totally different story. First of all, having read Fitzgerald so many times, I have developed some idea of the character Nick. He has always been that gentle and shy young man who is attentive and a good listener and friend. He never appeared to be the party animal who headlessly consumes alcohol and goes to brothels. Therefore, the encounters with women in “NICK“ do not fit to my idea of the character at all. He also never made the impression of being totally traumatized by his war experiences which, on the contrary, is the leading motive in this novel. Roaring Twenties, lively New York party life, people enjoying themselves - this is the atmosphere I adored in The Great Gatsby, none of this can be found in “NICK”. It starts with exhausting war descriptions, something I avoid reading normally and I wasn’t prepared for at all. Pages after page we read about soldiers fighting, this might be attractive for some readers, unfortunately, this is no topic for me. After depressing war scenes, we have gloomy and depressed Nick not knowing how to cope with the experiences he made in France. No glitter here, but a lot of fire and ashes. Reading “NICK” without having “The Great Gatsby” in mind might lead to a totally different reading experience. For me, sadly, a disappointment in many respects for which also some beautifully put sentences and an interesting character development could not make amends.