I think the author catches the spirit of bohemia quite well. Sort of Emily Dickinson mixed with advertising jingles, with sensuality and the Modernist cult of the artist overlay. The poetry presented here is either her actual work or closely modeled on it-and I have to say, it's quite good. During this novel she sleeps with Marchel Duchamp, poses for Man Ray, writes poetry for the acclaimed Little Review, and shocks conventional society with her revolutionary clothes-as-art. That intrigued me.Īlthough the author takes a lot of literary license, the main character, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhaven, truly existed, as did most of the supporting characters around her. The title suggested a chick lit book, but when I quickly perused the back cover, I discovered it was historical fiction about one of the most colorful characters in the avant garde artistic circles of Greenwich Village's bohemian counterculture just before and during World War I. I had half an hour to kill while waiting for a bus and noticed the unusual cover, which seemed ugly to me.
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