Depicted as braggart brute and bore in The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan has gotten a bad rap and means to correct the record That weakkneed simpering cousin of his wifes with his prattling about some lost idealized American individualism and rectitude was not only a fool and a liar but worse a failed bond salesman Pathetic But by 1924 Tom has bigger problems than the pathos of the summer of 22 First theres Aunt Gertrude who has assumed control of the Buchanan fortune Second what with Daisy getting jowly and the maids indiscreet theres little tranquillity at home Third a revolution is brewing in Nicaragua thats threatening to ensnare the family investments So when Tom is dispatched to maneuver among Nicaraguas international corporate intrigues machineguntoting rival political parties and competing American intelligence agencies he spies his chance A rollicking outrageous and altogether brilliant perversion of known facts Banana Republican sends the sexist racist elitist Buchanan careening through Americas brilliantly mismanaged intervention in Nicaragua in the early twentieth century Eric Rauchway bends history to Buchanans memoir as Tom blunders shoots and screws his way through the historical record and makes the case that greed and amorality have always been at the heart of the American dream