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A review by jheinemann287
Nick by Michael Farris Smith
1.0
If you're writing about Nick before he moves to NYC and meets Gatsby, there are a few expectations:
1) Nick meets a man who may be Gatsby during the war.
2) Nick spends time with Daisy and Tom in Chicago before they move away.
3) Nick has a girlfriend he may or may not be engaged to before he moves away.
4) Nick may be queer. (Hellooo, end of Chapter 2!)
This is what the people want. Michael Farris Smith ignores all of this, focusing instead on Nick's relationship with Manic Pixie Picture Frame Girl and then with a toxic couple in New Orleans. It's vaguely clever, I guess, to show him mostly as an observer of other people's stories, and there are a few scenes that echo what we'll see in Gatsby: At one point, he's shocked to be the only one at a funeral. He surprised to receive an invitation to a gathering. He becomes a caretaker to an addict in the style of James Gatz and Dan Cody. And of course, his dad tells him that not everyone has had the advantages he's had. Cool. But the story is too tedious and meandering and disappointing for these moments to feel like much.
Skip this. Read The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo instead.
1) Nick meets a man who may be Gatsby during the war.
2) Nick spends time with Daisy and Tom in Chicago before they move away.
3) Nick has a girlfriend he may or may not be engaged to before he moves away.
4) Nick may be queer. (Hellooo, end of Chapter 2!)
This is what the people want. Michael Farris Smith ignores all of this, focusing instead on Nick's relationship with Manic Pixie Picture Frame Girl and then with a toxic couple in New Orleans. It's vaguely clever, I guess, to show him mostly as an observer of other people's stories, and there are a few scenes that echo what we'll see in Gatsby: At one point, he's shocked to be the only one at a funeral. He surprised to receive an invitation to a gathering. He becomes a caretaker to an addict in the style of James Gatz and Dan Cody. And of course, his dad tells him that not everyone has had the advantages he's had. Cool. But the story is too tedious and meandering and disappointing for these moments to feel like much.
Skip this. Read The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo instead.