3.5 stars, rounded down
“In a city that never was, in an America that never was”. Thus goes the blurb for Cahokia Jazz. This is a world building story about a town where Native Americans own and run this city along the Mississippi River. With their own language, they are a part of America, yet distinct from the normal rules of white supremacy, segregation and the Klan. Not that the whites are happy about that. Otherwise, it’s the same as history; there’s still prohibition and jazz.
It’s 1922 and a body has been found on the roof of the Land Trust. It’s the body of a nervous Takata, white man, in the parlance. A man who has been gutted in some sort of ritualistic sacrifice. A man who’s got a full Klan robe in his apartment closet. Two detectives, one Native American, one white, are investigating the murder.
The book is historical fiction, except it’s sort of not. The reader has to be willing to accept this gray middle ground. In the Author’s Notes, Spufford explains how his Cahokia came to be. Make sure to read it. In fact, Spufford would have done better to have included his rationale on the creation of Cahokia at the beginning of the book.
Spufford takes his time setting the scene, building the town and its citizens. There’s even a kind of “royal” family. I enjoyed letting myself get sucked into the world he created. The cultural themes are much more important than the police procedural plot line.
The main character is a Native American but he’s not from Cahokia. This gives him an outsider’s viewpoint. He’s a well developed MC but the other characters are less so.
I found the pacing of this uneven. I definitely felt it could have been condensed. I’m never sure if it’s just me and my heightened sense of the political, but the book kept me thinking about the current political situation and the Republican “Christian” white supremacy agenda.
My thanks to Netgalley and Faber and Faber for an advance copy of this year.

Francis Spufford has written another unique novel, historical fiction set in a reimagined America.So creative so involving really engaging kept me turning the pages.A novel I will be recommending in 2024.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Scribner for an advance copy of this book of fiction that features a different America, a mystery, the usual human prejudices with a the sounds of hot jazz for a soundtrack.

I have always been interested in books that feature alternate history, fiction of nonfiction. The idea that a person can change not only themselves, but history by going right instead of left, or delaying over a fine cup of coffee is just fascinating. The possibilities are literally endless. A president saved by putting a roof on a convertible, a bomb actually working stopping a second world war. Not losing so much of a population to an epidemic, thereby changing a country. Cahokia Jazz is a book about America, but one that is far different than the one we live in. Written by Francis Spufford whose book on polar exploration is a huge favorite of mine, Spufford writes of an country where the indigenous population was never decimated by disease or war, but has done well for itself, and a city where people of every race and idea live together, and the dark forces that are gathering to rend it apart.

This America has different states, more based on the Articles of Confederation than a constitution. Smallpox instead of destroying many of the indigenous people of the country, was more manageable, and a natural immunity was built by the people, who could deal with the colonizers on more equal terms. Though many of the old ways have been changed or adapted with the Jesuit faith that many of the people have become. The book is set in a city where people of all races live, balanced if not happily all together. Whites have come for jobs and opportunities, and have brought many of their prejudices, including the Klan. A body is found on a roof, killed in an almost ritualistic way. A white man, with Klan links, and one who worked for the city. The idea of this ritual scares many, and they have chosen Joe Barrow, an indigenous police officer, but one who grew up in an orphanage, with no idea of the history or legacy of the people, nor even speak the language. Joe knows war, and jazz music, but even Joe knows that something dark is happening around him, and he might be one of the only people who can stop what is coming.

The work involved in crafting this book really impressed me. The idea in world building, making a history, and rituals, and actions of so many different people, and to be able to communicate this with a story that really doesn't let go once it starts rolling. A true achievement. I have enjoyed Spufford's earlier nonfiction, but this is the first of his fiction I have read. Spufford makes everything seem real, logical, and even in some of the odder sections make sense. The characters from Joe Barrow, and his friends, to the widow of the dead man, even just walk on characters seem real more reportage that creating. The history, the ideas, so much to think about and explore. One of those books that a person really can get lost in.

Recommended for people looking for a big sprawling story that is new, different and very well-written. Also writers looking for how to build their own worlds and role playing gamers and designers can learn a lot about developing their own scenarios for gaming. I can't wait to read more fiction by Francis Spufford.

Francis Spufford’s imagination astounds!

I first had read his I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination, which I savoured for its gorgeous writing and its insight. Then, he wrote the novel On Golden Hill in the style of 18th c novels by Henry Fielding and his sister Sarah. Then he astounded with Perpetual Light, imagining the lives children would have lived had they not been killed in a horrible accident.

Now, he has given us an alternate history/noir novel with Cahokia Jazz.

Spufford imagines a New World visited first by a less deadly smallpox virus, leaving the indigenous population immunized. With a healthy Native American presence they were able to establish their own state in the middle of the continent where native, black, and white are equal. The Jesuits converted the Native Americans by overlaying Christian ideas on the native myths. The land is not privately owned, with limited time leases for its use. And, there are the figureheads of a king and his princess sister.

The white immigrants from the North come for jobs but bring their racial prejudices, and the Klan is a strong organization.

The novel begins with the horrific murder of a white man, found with his heart torn out in imitation of ancient Aztec ritual killings. The whites flee the state, and those who remain are ready to riot against the Native American government.

Detective Barrow, a Native American who grew up in an orphanage, is on the case. Identified as Thrown-Away Boy, a hero in native legend, he is given access to the royal palace, and encountering the beautiful princess, falls in love.

It is a novel rich in detail and character, a great mystery, if not a fast reading page-turner, with interesting red herrings and twists. Its immensely entertaining in the way a murder mystery or alternative history can be, but also reflects our contemporary world’s ills. (One character suggests that the Klan army marching to attack the seat of government were really Jesuits out to stir up trouble!) Plus there is a love story! And scenes in a jazz lounge, with Barrow pounding out Jelly Roll Morton’s “Kansas City Stomp”. And a spunky secretary who staples the hand of a man who goosed her one time too many.

Then, there is the great noir style writing. “His voice was a Boston Brahmin Drawl, with vowels as aristocratically deformed as if an ottoman has been dragged on top of them.” “Muscle work was a stupid thing for a pianist to get involved in.” “Their money was so old that it underlay the United States like geology.”

My faith in Spufford reinforced, I will read anything the man writes.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

This book is SO much fun. It’s totally different from Spufford’s previous novels, but totally in his wheelhouse at the same time. Joe Barrow is a riot, and I loved his noirish, alternative Jazz Age. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of New York stories, film noir, and/or murder mysteries.

I'm new to this author but certainly see the talent. Interesting plot and characters made this an engaging read.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!!

Tremendous. Spufford, always good, surprises this time with an historical novel set in a reimagined US, with its own deities and language. Yet it’s a murder mystery. And a love story. And a good old adventure with a big, heroic good guy at its centre. This is truly gripping stuff, fully fleshed, romantic yet persuasive. Barrow is in the Bogart mould. I’d like to meet him again but hopes of a sequel are fading…