It is interesting in the extreme that you chose Toni Morrison's Jazz in opposition to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Morrison wrote Jazz in specific conversation with--not necessarily opposition to--Fitzgerald and Gatsby. She had said so in talks and lectures she gave, often quoting large sections of Fitzgeralds book. It is set in the same place in the same year, but from a different perspective for that very reason. Morrison regarded Fitzgeralds writing with great respect--enough respect to engage with him directly--which is where she saw the danger in the limited (read: whites only) perspective. It was a starting point for much of her literary criticism (And, let us recall, criticism is not a synonym for condemnation...) and a motive force behind the novel, Jazz.

In other words, if Fitzgerald had not written The Great Gatsby, Morrison could not have written Jazz... and if the former was not brilliant, neither could the latter be.

So, while I agree with your encomia for Jazz, I think you slight Gatsby. I urge you to take another look at it and try to respect it as Morrison respected it. It is not, in fact, a 'romance.'

Also, and not for nothing, Morrison also had a lot to say about the 'Africanism' at the heart of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.