Shadow Box by Antonia Logue
Read Ireland - The Web's Specialist Irish Bookstore
Shadow Box by Antonia Logue
(0747539820)
(Hardback; 14.99 IRP / 22.25 USD)
"You'd dip into Cravan for a day and come out of an acid bath, your body
corroding, sinuses so full of poison those inner canals in your ears would
hear nothing but a high wasting moan and your balance would be all shot to
hell. He strode around Berlin wearing hookers on his shoulders, them
tittering and screeching down the Kurfurstendam like they were queens on a
float, then leave them back where he found them, all legs and suicide."
In her dazzling first novel, Antonia Logue weaves together the lives of
three extraordinary characters: Jack Johnson, who punched his way out of
the dockyards of Galveton to become the first black heavyweight champion of
the world; Arthur Cravan, the dadaist provacateur who was competing for the
heart of the English Modernist poet Mina Loy, the third charismatic figure
in this triangle.
It was in 1908 that Johnson was crowned world champion – to the great
chagrin of the American public, scandalized by his fast cars, debauchery,
taste for women, and the fact that he couldn't be beaten. Forced to flee
to Europe to escape being jailed on trumped-up-charges, he met Cravan, and
together they dreamed up a brilliant scam to get Cravan to New York: the
staged a fight to pay for his passage. Soon Cravan was shocking the arts
patrons of New York society with a Futurist manifesto-cum-drunken rant that
landed him in jail – his antics egged on by friends such as Marcel Duchamp.
But Cravan's time in New York also gave rise to a passionate love affair
with the celebrated modernist poet, Mina Loy. Theirs was a great love,
interrupted by a great war. They had an idyllic wedding in Mexico, and the
Cravan – fleeing conscription – sailed into a hurricane and was presumed
dead.
In this book the author has written a sweeping story of love and
friendship. Letters between Jack and Mina unfold a compulsively readable
tale of love, art, and boxing, ranging across the United States and Europe
in an era of tremendous social, artistic, and political upheaval. Told in
a powerful voice, with warm humour, and a vigorous historical imagination,
it marks the debut of a vibrant and electrifying new talent.
--
books reviewed by Gregory Carr
greg...@readireland.ie
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