"Jay Gatsby: A Black Man in Whiteface" - A Synopsis

WHAT IF JAY GATSBY IS A BLACK MAN PASSING AS A WHITE ONE? 
The Great Gatsby was written against the backdrop of 1920s America, a period that saw heightened racial strife, sensitivity and conflict as a result of the post-war movement of peoples around the globe and the improving effect that new technology had on middle and lower class life. During this period the fact and fear of racial passing was a hot topic in America. It was also a key topic in F. Scott Fitzgerald's own life. Having what he saw as a mixed racial heritage, and growing up as the Catholic son of immigrants and the poorest boy amidst the wealthy, Fitzgerald saw America from the middle and the outside. He knew what it was like to be at the top of society and was keenly aware of how one inconvenient biographical fact could keep you out. This book unveils how Fitzgerald included race as well as class as a pitfall in the doomed pursuit of the American Dream. He did so by making his striving but flawed main character both poor and mixed race.
Through an understanding of Fitzgerald's life, and contemporary America, and a close read of the drafts of The Great Gatsby and related correspondence, this book shows how America's troubled conscience about race and Fitzgerald's own inside/outside status laces through the novel.
Everyone says the novel has not a spare word. So, ask yourself why Nick Carraway thinks Jay Gatsby could have come from the swamps of New Orleans? Why does he have jazz music at his parties? Why is yellow a frequently used color and why are his fine suits referred to as rags? Why does the novel open and close with discussion about miscegenation? Why did Fitzgerald use the name of a freed slave in his favorite title for the novel? This interpretation of Gatsby makes the best use of all of the words - and it fits in very well with those famous last lines.
Maxwell Perkins said the novel went over people's heads. Other reviewers said that it relies on implication and ellipsis. It bears noting that Fitzgerald himself said that even the most enthusiastic supporters of the book failed to understand what it was about. Jay Gatsby: A Black Man in Whiteface provides an answer in 80 easy-to-read pages plus a full bibliography with sources that readers can easily find and consider themselves.
This book will turn your view of The Great Gatsby sideways. But then you'll see that it looks better that way.