el dang reviewed Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford
Astonishing masterpiece
5 stars
This book does so many things, and all outstandingly. It's a portrait of a Cahokia that in our timeline was never allowed to exist. It's a noir detective thriller. It's an intense character study of a deeply relatable protagonist. It's a love poem to 1920s jazz--the music and the cultural space it created.
I'm having difficulty actually talking about it coherently without massive spoilers. So just go on and read this book.
This book does so many things, and all outstandingly. It's a portrait of a Cahokia that in our timeline was never allowed to exist. It's a noir detective thriller. It's an intense character study of a deeply relatable protagonist. It's a love poem to 1920s jazz--the music and the cultural space it created.
I'm having difficulty actually talking about it coherently without massive spoilers. So just go on and read this book.