Francis Spufford
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford offers an alternative history of Cahokia as a city in the U.S. but separate from it. In Spufford’s narrative, Cahokia is owned and run by Native Americans who have their own language, their own mythology and rituals, and their own “royal” family.
Set in the 1920s, the story opens with the discovery of a gruesome murder in which the corpse has been disemboweled in some sort of ritualistic sacrifice. Detectives Drummond and Barrow are assigned the task of solving the crime. Drummond is white; Barrow is a native American with a talent for playing the piano. Initial inquiries lead the detectives to pursue it as a racially motivated crime perpetrated by the indigenous community against the white victim. But Barrow soon realizes the situation is far more complicated than he had previously thought. There is nothing simple in this racially divided city with its smoke screens and shifting allegiances. Barrow follows the labyrinthian trail that leads him to interact with Cahokia’s royalty, finds himself embroiled in political conspiracies, battles it out with the Klan, thwarts two assassination attempts, solves the murder, and discovers the extent of his partner’s corruption. In all of this mayhem, he has the time and wherewithal to pursue a love interest.
Spufford’s world building is intricate, detailed, gritty, and atmospheric. Barrow takes us on a tour of the city through its winding roads, different racial and ethnic neighborhoods, train station, smoke-infested police precinct, wide open plaza, dark alleys, and university. He dashes about from one urban jungle location to the next in a frenzy of activity. The description is immersive—perhaps too much so. The excessive detail of the city’s topography weighs down the narrative. To add to an already complicated setting, Spufford refers to the different groups by their assigned labels: Takouma – Native American; Taklousa – African ancestry; Takata – European ancestry. It is so confusing to keep track of who is what that it becomes necessary to refer to the front of the book several times to see which label has been assigned to which group to ascertain a specific character’s race and ethnicity.
The plot is dense with an excess of expository writing. The main character, Barrow is interesting as a detective noir archetype. He is an orphaned Takouma but a newcomer to Cahokia. He doesn’t speak the language and is conflicted about his allegiance to his former partner, to the police department, and to his mixed heritage identity. He finds himself increasingly drawn to Cahokia’s leading family as they wrestle for survival in a hothouse of racial and cultural tensions.
Francis Spufford is to be commended for writing an ambitious novel of a rich and complex world. But it maybe a little too ambitious with too many intricate details and pursuing too many directions to make it a compelling and comprehensive read.