Nick by Michael Farris Smith is a story about Nick Carraway and his life before the 'Great Gatsby'. It's like a prequel to his life before the life in West Egg.
Blurb:
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. 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.
Review:
I loved Michael's writing. I knew from page 1, that I would love this book. The writing style of the author felt poetically beautiful. The way he describes the setting and the emotions of Nick, was too good.
The story starts with Paris, where Nick meets his young love. It jumps between Paris and his time as a soldier in WW1. The scenes from the war felt too intense. The only thing keeping him sane was remembering his time with his love, Ella. She was his comfort when the war crumbled his soul. I feel this must have been true for a lot of soldiers who fought during the Great War. The thought of that one person, keeping you sane whole the worlds explode to ashes. The author has beautifully depicted the emotions through his writing.
Apart from this, we also have a glimpse at Nick's childhood and how his mother struggled with depression. The way Nick describes the period of 'Darkness' felt too triggering, and made me wonder how difficult it must be for a child to understand this darkness.
The story further takes you on a journey of a soldier after the War. If War was bad, the period after that wasn't better either. The ghost of what you saw during the war, will haunt you forever. This was the case with Nick as well. Nick's post-war life triggered by PTSD was again too heart-wrenching to read.
Michael Farris Smith is undoubtedly a wonderful writer and this book is definitely a great example of that. A historic, pre-war, classical retelling, with love, war, mental health, and whatnot. I loved this book and would definitely recommend EVERYONE to read it.
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