Shadow-box Book

This ambitious, complex first novel by Antonia Logue revolves around three central characters: the Modernist poet, Mina Loy, her husband, critic and boxer, Fabian Lloyd (aka Arthur Cravan) and his best friend, former Heavyweight World Champion Jack Johnson. Separated by war and circumstances, Jack sees a newspaper article about Mina 28 years after her wedding to Cravan and decides to write to her about his "ghosts and wives and situations". His letters are pulsing with life, action, vigour and colour. He describes the "sheer hammered excitement" of winning the World Title in front of 40,000 people shouting "Die coon!". Logue brilliantly captures the birth of the sports star system as Jack becomes a beacon of black pride and then victim of appalling racism, designed to bring him down when clean fighting cannot. Mina's letters in response are as meticulously researched--her failed first marriage, her Dadaist dalliances with Marinetti and Duchamp, her literary success, but somehow the wit, glamour and adventurousness her life suggests are never fully realised in the writing. Her choice to leave her children for her art could be developed further and that she falls in love with Cravan, who promptly deserts her, seems sadly just, rather than moving. He's portrayed as a gutless, naive iconoclast--and who needs another one of those? Both Jack and Mina are pioneers of their time and you begin to wish they exchanged ideas rather than detailing events, however ground breaking. --Cherry SmythRead More