Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy

Rating:
Summary: Very Informative, but Very Dense
Review: Mina Loy led an extraordianry life and was clearly an artist creating before her time. This book is exhaustingly researched, a veritable Loy tome. If you love Mina Loy, it is certainly a must-read. It is very dense in parts though and often explains much more than is needed. The diction is very elevated, which often gives this the feel of an university book written for other academics. It's unfortunate though, because the book does a wonderful job of chronicling her life. This is often weighed down by the feeling that this book is seeking to impress rather than inform.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant biography of modernism
Review: This biography of the madcap artist-poet, Mina Loy, is a masterpiece of the genre. Exhaustively researched by a meticulous scholar, the book's rich detail and witty slant make it read like a well-written novel. Its scenes are so vivid, in fact, that a recent novelization (unauthorized) of it has appeared and is receiving all the wonderful reviews that rightfully belong to Burke's book (see Logue).