New Year’s Eve celebrations were severely limited by the pandemic. There were no huge crowds in Times Square or large gatherings in venues around the world. But in the literary world, 2021 marked a great celebration. On the first day of each year, a new collection of published works will enter the US public domain, which means that anyone can use, adapt or build upon them without having to pay royalty fees. Copyright protection was originally 75 years, but as the 20th century came to a close, Congress extended it to 95 years for works published between 1923 and 1977.

Among the class of materials joining the public domain this year are Ernest Hemingway’s IN OUR TIME, Theodore Dreiser’s AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY. The latter has been one of my favorites since I first read it in high school. I have reread it numerous times, read countless books about its writing and its author, and watched every movie adaptation, including the rarely seen 1949 version starring Alan Ladd.

"NICK is an interesting and well-written speculation about this legendary character before he traveled to Long Island to seek a new life."

Narrator Nick Carraway has remained a cherished literary character, though I am not sure why he struck a chord with me. In THE GREAT GATSBY, there was a paucity of details about his life prior to coming East to work in the bond business. Readers were informed about the family hardware business in Minnesota, his Ivy League education and his experience in World War I.

Now comes Michael Farris Smith’s NICK, which details Nick's story before his ill-fated encounter with Jay Gatsby in the West Egg district of Long Island. I always viewed Nick as a thoughtful and observant judge of character, ever mindful of the words of his father: “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had.”

While Nick’s service overseas is a brief mention in Fitzgerald’s novel, it occupies a large portion of NICK. The descriptions of combat are vivid and complete: “The rifles fired and once they were emptied the bayonets and once they were broken off in the rib cages out came the knives and the hands and knees and fists and whatever else could be used to kill.” The scenes of trench warfare and violence are interspersed with tender moments from Nick’s leave time in Paris. Of course, he finds love only to have it disappear as he returns to the front. No reader of THE GREAT GATSBY will be surprised by this opening portion; the transition to Fitzgerald's work is fairly seamless.

Coming home after the war, Nick decides to delay his return to the hardware business for a trip to New Orleans. The devastation of combat has changed him mentally and physically. There he meets Judah, a fellow soldier who also has endured his fair share of injuries in the trenches of Europe. In a precursor to his Long Island experiences with Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Nick finds himself as the man in the middle of a lovers’ quarrel that ends tragically. Finally leaving New Orleans, Nick will come back to Minnesota only to decide that the financial lure of Eastern business is a greater one than the staid family business of the Midwest.

Arriving on Long Island, Nick “[f]elt the anticipation of a new day and his heart beat faster as he thought of the vast American city that awaited him. So many faces and sights and sounds and I will be one of millions, he thought. I will join in.” For once, in preparing my review, I did not have to worry about plot spoilers because the story concludes as the meeting of Nick and Gatsby begins.

The New Orleans portion of NICK creates the connective tissues between the novels of Smith and Fitzgerald. New Orleans is wild, rowdy and violent, while Long Island is placid and upper-crust. Having known Nick for decades, I am forced to admit that I am uncomfortable with him appearing in these pages. NICK is an interesting and well-written speculation about this legendary character before he traveled to Long Island to seek a new life. But there are other stories to tell, and this is not the one that I had hoped to hear.