Cahokia Jazz

De: Francis Spufford

Narrado por: Andy Ingalls

* Winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History * Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction *

“Dazzling.” —Los Angeles Times * “Energetic and hugely enjoyable.” —The Guardian, Best Fiction of the Year * “As intoxicating as a swig of bathtub gin.” —Good Housekeeping

The bestselling and award-winning author of Golden Hill delivers a “smoky, brooding noir set in the 1920s” (Slate) that reimagines how American history would be different if, instead of being decimated, indigenous populations had thrived.

Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s—a fully imagined world filled with fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, and dark deeds. In the main character of hard-boiled detective Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot.

One snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis containing people of every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. Yet that corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of jazz clarinets and wailing streetcars, either to destruction or rebirth.

“Atmospheric…many of us will recognize our own held-breath bafflement, caught, as we are, on the darkling plain of our own barely believable times” (The Washington Post).©2024 Francis Spufford (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Fantastic the whole way through.

A brutal murder, an investigation full of twists and turns, human fallibility and human triumph. Classic noir in an alter-Louisiana filled with sumptuous atmospheric details and music. Well worth the time.

complex mystery with mystic undertones

the reader was wonderful. He had many spot on voices in his reading style. The story had me looking up location and more online to be sure I had a better understanding of which racial were which. Very compelling story line.

Amazing creative, gorgeous prose

Amazing creative, gorgeous prose. I wish I could write half as well as the author.

This novel resonates profoundly with me

I picked this novel as one of my monthly credits because many years ago I was a graduate student doing field work at the Mississippian Culture site of Cahokia. I was curious as to how the author would incorporate the history of this unique archeological site into a fictional venue. This novel far exceeded any expectations I had. It was a grand effort by the author of constructing an incredibly believable alternative history and culture amongst the tapestry of American history. The development of language, class distinctions, and cultural were effortlessly woven into the real environment of post WWI America in the St. Louis area. Above and beyond the details of this evocative alternative Spufford addresses much larger issues of the human condition such as loyalty, love, and predjudice. Passages within this novel were so beautifully written I found myself going back and rereading and listening to them again. Spufford’s Cahokia and the cast of characters who lived there begged to be savored and contemplated. CAHOKIA JAZZ ranks among one of the finest books I have had the privilege to read. It will resonate with me for a very long time.

Cahokia feels so real

Cahokia is as fascinating as the other characters in this story. The place and the people will stay with me.

Imaginative noir

Narrator really distinguished the different characters beautifully in this terrific noir imagining Native Americans who rule a state & city in 1922. It’s got the tough detectives, femmes fatales, plus a crazy murder plot to take over the crazily imagined monarchy running things. Plus jazz! Doubt I could’ve stayed with this except for excellent narrator.

Twist and turns, jazz

Wild re-imagining of an American history- lovely, great damaged characters. And jazz energy throughout

There’s a third alt-hist noir thriller!

I’m not even done with it and it’s already one of my favorite books. It joins Fatherland by Robert Harris and the Yiddish policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon in this very very small canon of Nir detective thrillers set in alternative histories.

I love how the author keeps dribbling out just enough detail to help understand the story. In a noir police procedural with a detective who’s part Native American — and in which larger political questions about control of Alaska loom! — he owes Chabon some kind of explicit nod to Berko Shemets and Meyer Landsman. Maybe it’s there but I missed it, or maybe I haven’t heard it yet.

The readers voice is just right. He does a wide variety of accents, possibly well, including Boston Brahmin, which isn’t easy!

If I have any complaints so far, it’s only that the audiobook should include maps of this fictional city and fictional world. I know they exist because I was able to find them by downloading a free sample of the Kindle book.

I’ll be buying a physical copy of this one sooner or later. Thanks!!

An alternate history of the midwest in the 1920s

This is the third novel of Francis Spufford that I have read. They have all been historical fiction of one sort or another. Golden Hill was set in 1746 New York City and has a plot twist at the very end that really made the book. It was well written and tightly plotted, but that main twist and some other minor plots twists moved the book from good to excellent. Light Perpetual is also an alternative history that follows a group of children who were killed by a German rocket in WWII as if they had not died. My only real complaint about the book is that the book could have been written as a straight novel without the alternate history. I bring that up because Cahokia Jazz does not have that problem.

Cahokia Jazz is set in the 1920s. The alternative history is not really explained well, but as I explored other reviews, I discovered that the central change is that a less virulent form of small pox was introduced by early Spanish explorers and that instead of approximately 90% of Native Americans at the time dying from European diseases, a much smaller percentage died. The result is that by the 1920s, instead of a minuscule Native American population, there is really three cultural groupings in this midwestern city that is in roughly the same area as St Louis. The book opens with a note telling the reader that there are three racial/ethnic groups in the book and the book uses the local terms to describe them. They are, takouma (Native Americans), takata (European Americans), and taklousa (African Americans). I knew in my head the terms and I knew by the story which group was which in terms of cultural power and significance, but I think his renaming these racial/ethnic terms was a savvy way to disguise some of the plot points.

As with other Spufford books there is a top level story, but there is depth below that. Cahokia Jazz is a classic noir detective novel. The gritty cop finds a body and has to do the hard things to solve the crime. That gritty cop doesn’t like following rules and has his own history that influences the case. Joe Barrow is a gifted jazz pianist, but has become a murder detective. His partner, Phineas Drummond, who he met in “the war” is a classic dirty cop who also has PTSD.

Much of the culture and history is familiar. This is the 1920s, prohibition has led to crime and gangs. Tommy guns still shape that violence. The US exists, but the development of it is different because of the precarious nature of a multilingual and multi cultural country. The racial reality matters here. White supremacy is still assumed, but the cultural history of the Native Americans, who are now mostly Catholic, but still are influence by the cultural history. Barrow was an orphaned mixed racial man. He is part takouma who was never taught a language other than English and doesn’t know any of the stories and history of his Native American side, but has connected with the jazz and culture of his taklousa side. His partner, a takata, naturally assumes leadership because of the assumptions of white supremacy.

The city has an uncomfortable equilibrium. It is primarily a takouma city with a traditional leadership structure, but while he would be a type of king, the official authority structures have changed and modern economics are attempting to take over the traditional communal systems. Race, economics, power, tradition all come together to tell a story that is both familiar, but different enough to make sense as an alternate history.

I think this is a book that is less focused on the plot twists and more focused on the front end alternate history to be the twist. As much as I can see the through line of Spufford’s writing, his ability to write books that feel completely different from one another is something that I don’t see from most other writers. Most other writers stick to a genre and become known for that genre. If anything I think Spufford may be known for not sticking to a genre and writing books that feel completely different from all the other books he has previously written. But all of these books are beautifully written with compelling characters.

Difficult to follow

Disliked the vulgarity and fantastical aspects of the work. Not liked by any in my female book club.