Your Utopia (2024) by Bora Chung

Korean author Bora Chung

Book Review

Your Utopia (2023)

by Bora Chung

  I really enjoyed Cursed Bunny, the debut collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung, which was published in translation last year and was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Translated Fiction.  I was eager to read Your Utopia, her new collection of short stories, particularly after I saw a stand up display(!) in the local Barnes & Noble- not a real huge supporter of translated literature in my experience.  

   Whereas Cursed Bunny seemed more like a collection themed around "body horror", Your Utopia feels more like an excursion into a world of post-human literature.  A couple of the stories feature robot/non-human narrators, and the longest is a zombie-spaceship cross-over situation.  I found the stories with non-human narrators to be the most interesting.   In one story, the narrator is an elevator looking after an elderly woman with Parkinson's, in another a Wall-E type robot wanders a planet deserted by their human "masters."  Everything moves along at a good clip, as you expect in a book of short stories, and I'm left wondering when and if Chung is going to publish a novel.

  I listened to half of Your Utopia as an Audiobook, and the other half I read on my Kindle. 

Golden Hill (2016) by Francis Spufford

 Book Review

Golden Hill (2016)

by Francis Spufford

  Fair to say I've been sleeping on English author Francis Spufford.   I ignored his last book- Light Perpetual, because it just didn't sound very fun, but it did very well.  Tons of people read it, and it landed on several year end best-of lists  but I just couldn't get into it.  I did, however, get very excited when I read about his newest book- Cahokia Jazz- which is an alternate history noir set in a jazz age Cahokia city where Native Americans never lost control.  Reading that book spurred me to go back and revisit Golden Hill which was a smash hit by the standard of literary/historical fiction, and is set in 18th century New York to boot, making it a candidate for the revised 1,001 Novels list.

  It's clear that Golden Hill is a work of historical fiction inspired by the fiction of that era- specifically Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding. Along those lines, I found myself waiting for the plot to really blast off, but it never really does, just muddles along to a neat and tidy resolution.  It is a book that contains surprises so describing the plot isn't a good idea, but it's a fun romp through pre-American New York City.  

You Dreamed of Empire (2024) by Alvaro Enrigue

 Book Review

You Dreamed of Empire (2024)

by Alvaro Enrigue

   I convinced my book club to read this book this month (March 2024)- I was very excited when I read the description- which is- a compression of the meeting between Conquistador Cortes and Montezuma, the Aztec emperor.   This is a specific subject I often think about- a "Roman Empire" for me, to use the current meme.   What, exactly, happened that allowed the Aztec empire to be defeated by what can only be described as a rag-tag bunch of adventurers, albeit ones with firearms, cannon and horses- which play a central role in this book (the horses), specifically, Enrigue proposes that Montezuma wanted to get his hands on the horses also that he was high on mushrooms the whole time and had essentially become obsessed with the Aztec religion, to the detriment of his empire.

   I thought the whole book was very good- great even- and I agree with reviewers who said that Enigue is a major talent.  Can't wait to see what he does next, and I'm going to read the hardback in addition to listening to the Audiobook- which wasn't great, even though the book was.  For some reason they hired an Audiobook narrator who spoke in Spanish accented English, which seemed kind of dumb to me.  If anything he should have had an Aztec or Mayan accent, based on the ethnicity of the narrators. 

  I would call You Dreamed of Empire a must for readers of fiction in translation and maybe one of the best books of the year. Certainly the best book so far this year.  Don't listen to the Audiobook though, read the book.

Cahokia Jazz (2024) by Francis Spufford

 Book Review

Cahokia Jazz (2024)

by Francis Spufford

   I was so excited when I read about this book for the first time: An alt history Native American 1920's detective noir written by English author of note Francis Spufford.  It is, one might say, up my alley, since the abandoned Native American city of Cahokia and possible connections to the Meso-American civilization of the Aztecs et al was a subject of interest to me long before I heard about Cahokia Jazz. When I read the Guardian review I had high hopes that this would be a smash hit, but thus far the American response has been tepid.  The New York Times review suggested that readers don't have time for the "world building" aspect of the book and I've noticed a tone in casual reviews on Amazon and Goodreads that American readers are inherently uncomfortable with the idea that there exists some version of reality where elements of the Native American community held their own against the colonial west. 

  I've noticed that attitude for years- since I clerked at California Indian Legal Services when I was in law school 25 years ago.  Suggest to a contemporary American- even those who consider themselves progressive on matters of social justice- that America should "give back" stolen land to Native American tribes and you will elicit wide eyed looks of amazement.   I found the world-building elements of Cahokia Jazz intoxicating, and I was frankly offended by the New York Times reviewer who suggested that the full backstory behind this alternate world was incoherent and impossible to explain.

   In fact, Spufford does a great job with brief interstitial historical documents that chart the path of the independent Catholic-Native American state of Cahokia from its conversion to Catholicism through its intervention in the American Civil War and ultimate accession to the Union.  Spufford provides an alternate map of the United States- one where the Mormons are still independent, the Navaho have their own state,   England held on to more of the Pacific Northwest, and Russia kept Alaska.  It's really not that complicated if you have a rudimentary understanding of ACTUAL US history.  If on the other hand, you don't know the ACTUAL story of US history Cahokia Jazz is likely to bewilder you as much as it did the New York Times reviewer. 

  Hopefully the story will get picked up by a premium TV streamer- easy to see a big budget version on Apple TV, HBO or Amazon.  It's also easy to see said version going very wrong, since period detective films/tv shows are tough to get right.