Holy Skirts

January 3, 2005
A starred review indicates a book of outstanding quality. A review with a blue-tinted title indicates a book of unusual commercial interest that hasn't received a starred review.

HOLY SKIRTS
René Steinke
. Morrow
, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 0-688-17694-1

Literary Review
editor Steinke's second novel (after The Fires
) is a lively, sympathetic fictionalized account of the true adventures of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a poet, artist's model and friend of Marcel Duchamp whose irrepressible life bordered on the fashionably sordid. Fleeing her burgher home in Swinemünde, Germany, at age 19 for the liberation—and poverty—of Berlin circa 1904, Elsa learns early to lie about her past and dress outrageously (often in male clothing), attracting numerous men who provide entrée to high society. Three husbands determine the direction of her life: the first, August, is an effete, hashish-smoking architect; the second, his best friend, Franz, is a charming, tortured poet and con man who brings Elsa to New York only to desert her; and the last is a German baron who gambles away his fortune and abandons her as well. Yet Elsa is an intrepid heroine who continually rises from her own ashes, muscling her way into artists' parties with bon mots and conversation-stopping "self-apparel pieces." Reading an account of an interior life that is not entirely fictional and not entirely factual can be disorienting, but Steinke shows palpable admiration and respect for her proto-feminist protagonist. This is an intelligent, spirited work that stimulates interest in the baroness's work and times. Agent, Ira Silverberg at Donadio & Olson. 5-city author tour. (Mar. 15)

Forecast:
Blurbs from sources as diverse as J.T. Leroy and Phillip Lopate suggest Steinke's range—she deals as confidently with cross-dressing as she does with modernist art history.