Thanks for the thumbs-ups. I have to make a clarification or two. Fitzgerald’s original spelling of the Jewish mobster’s name was “Wolfsheim,” and so some editions and critics go with that. The second edition and on use “Wolfshiem.” So doing web searches can be hit-or-miss. Also, Fitzgerald’s rendering of Meyer Wolfshiem’s word was “gonnegtion” starting with a ‘c’ and not a ‘g.’ Also, my memory failed me; what Wolfshiem said about Gatsby was: “I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter. I saw right away he was a fine appearing, gentlemanly young man, and when he told me he was an Oggsford I knew I could use him good. I got him to join up in the American Legion and he used to stand high there. Right off he did some work for a client of mine up to Albany. We were so thick like that in everything—“ He held up two bulbous fingers —”always together.” But, in any case, I think that Wolfshiem considered Gatsby a surrogate son, and also very useful in his being able to operate within WASP society. Speaking of which, I had always viewed Tom Buchanan’s apocalyptic racist rant as only that. But I just skimmed the abstract of an academic article that suggested that Daisy’s girlhood friend Jordan Baker was a light-skinned African-American who was “passing” in white society. She’s the only character in the novel whose skin tone is repeatedly noted. Fascinating, I say. jm
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