Nick

By: Michael Farris Smith

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

A critically acclaimed novelist pulls Nick Carraway out of the shadows and into the spotlight in this "masterful" look into his life before Gatsby (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Chances Are).

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.

©2021 Michael Farris Smith (P)2021 Hachette Audio

Uneven

The early part was gripping but as characters and settings changed, it seemed to lack coherence and I lost interest in the last part and stopped listening.

Misrepresentation

No spoilers. I normally don’t write reviews but I feel like this needs to be said. The reader was good. The story was fine. But it was not a story of Nick Carraway. I feel like the author had a story that he thought was decent but could not sell, so he threw Nick‘s name on it and a couple of Gatsby quotes, and added a last chapter to tie this previously existing story to Gatsby. What an easy way to make a few bucks, hitchhiking on the Gatsby name. If you want to hear about a WW1 soldier, the “lost generation” as Gertrude Stein called them, and of the events of his life immediately after the war, then this story is OK. But if you buy this book because you want insight into the character of Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby you will be disappointed. Most of what we know about Nick Carraway’s background is replaced with an entirely different person. The Nick in the great Gatsby is a bit uptight. A Harvard man who would never introduce himself ot someone without someone else’s introduction, or at least and mutual acquaintance. The neck in the story is nowhere near that type of character.

Like a Rolling Stones Cover Band...

I wanted to like it, but the writing seemed forced, ringing hollow against the backdrop of F. Scott’s lyrical prose. Perhaps it was the performance that also left the writing flat. His tone/inflection was inconsistent which distracted from the story. Overall, this was one of my least enjoyable Audible experiences.

Great Start but Falls Flat

It starts off amazing but the New Orleans sub plot is weird and makes you lose interest. I wish the Paris love story continued.

doesn't match with Gatsby

this is an interesting story, but there is no way this character is the one that later appears in gatsby. stories just don't match up.

As others have mentioned, hardly about Nick

I enjoyed parts of it but the middle to the end felt long winded. I had trouble following the timing throughout the book, maybe it was intentional but it made the book harder to enjoy.

I think the writing could have been stronger in some parts as the content felt shocking when I think it could have been more subtle and just had more descriptive language to evoke the feeling.

a neat idea but not something special

maybe good for a fan of a francophone culture because of a Paris and New Orleans setting. it would be better for me as a male listener if it had some kind of sexy female voice reading and performing the audiobook. it's a neat idea by the author and he's definitely capitalizing on F Scott Fitzgerald work becoming public domain in 2021. the war scenes in the beginning of the book where interesting. The love story was entertaining. The transition to New Orleans provided a neat setting, and Judahs character was well created. the way it ended helped to tie the novel together to The Great Gatsby but overall it just kind of was something that I would listen to once and probably not think about it again.

Bleak

I had such high hopes for this book. I had to force myself to finish it. The author is a very good, descriptive writer, however this story was grim and skipped about without a purpose. I was unable to recognize Fitzgerald’s Nick in Smith’s Nick. It was as if Smith wrote the sad story of a man coming out of WW1 and then decided at the last minute to say it was the prequel to The Great Gatsby.

Wonderful and surprising.

Pleasantly deeper and different than expected. Really really really really just adding extra words for the box.

Disappointed

As a huge fan of The Great Gatsby, this was terrible. I went in thinking it would be a true prequel, and it did not hold true to Nick's character as Fitzgerald had appeared to portray him one bit.