''Nick'' is a 2021 novel by American writer

Michael Farris Smith Michael Farris Smith is an American writer from Mississippi. As of 2021, Smith has published six novels: ''The Hands of Strangers'' (2011), ''Rivers'' (2013), ''Desperation Road'' (2017), ''The Fighter'' (2018), ''Blackwood'' (2020), and ''Nick'' ...

. It is his sixth novel and was published on January 5, 2021 by

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

. It is a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

's landmark 1925 novel ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...

''.

Synopsis

''Nick'' centers on the narrator of ''The Great Gatsby'',

Nick Carraway Nick Carraway is a fictional character and narrator in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel ''The Great Gatsby''. Character biography In his narration, Nick Carraway explains that he was born in the Middle West. The Carraway family owned a hardware ...

, in the years before the events of Fitzgerald's novel. It follows Nick Carraway as a soldier in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, his detours in Paris, and his time in New Orleans before his move up to

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

Background

Smith first read ''

'' as a high school student, but he did not fully understand it at the time. In 2014, after living in Europe, Smith reread the novel for the first time in several years. He came to identify with its narrator Nick Carraway and was drawn to Carraway's sense of detachment. He felt emotionally compelled to write a

novel, despite the "literary weight" of doing so and the inevitable public reaction. Smith wrote the novel in 2014 and 2015, and did not once take into consideration any potential copyright issues. He wrote it in secret, telling neither his agent nor his editor. In 2015, ten months after Smith began writing the novel, he sent in a completed manuscript. Smith was promptly informed that he would be required to wait until 2021 to publish it due to the original work's existing copyright. ''The Great Gatsby''s U.S.

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

expired on January 1, 2021, when all works published in 1925 entered the

public domain in the United States Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights (such as copyright) at all, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired. All works first published or released in the United States b ...

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' called ''Nick'' a "compelling character study." In his review for ''The New York Times'',

Ben Fountain Ben Fountain (born 1958) is an American writer currently living in Dallas, Texas. He has won many awards including a PEN/Hemingway award for ''Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories'' (2007) and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fict ...

called it an "exemplary novel" with a "classic American sound" and praised Smith's unique rendering of Nick Carraway. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' praised the "striking imagery" of the war chapters, but felt the novel ultimately did not provide any deeper understanding of Nick Carraway. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' agreed, criticizing the novel as devolving into a melodrama and reprocessing Nick Carraway rather than clarifying his character. Ron Charles of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' felt the novel failed to expand on the original story and criticized its second half for withdrawing Nick's perspective too far and leaving readers with "noir caricatures and their lurid spat."

References

{{Authority control 2021 American novels Works based on The Great Gatsby Prequel novels Novels based on novels American historical novels Little, Brown and Company books Novels set in Paris Novels set in New Orleans Novels set during World War I