A reader gets the sense that Bloom spent years — perhaps even decades — researching Burns’s life ... Bloom is at his best when he takes us through the San Francisco of the early 20th century, painting a vivid picture of the city as an embarkation point for sailors during World War II ... The only problem with The Audacity of Inez Burns is that it is at times repetitive — Bloom often reminds the reader of what she should already know ... Bloom’s adroit narrative brings this forgotten San Francisco story to light.
Bloom tells a captivating story of Burns’ ascent, presented alongside San Francisco’s breathtaking transformation in the first decades of the 20th century. To compensate for a lack of sources, he re-creates scenes and invents dialogue, a practice that will irk those who prefer their nonfiction unembellished.
Bloom’s exhaustive new biography is cinematic in scope as well as feel; each turn of the page reveals another finely-wrought revelation or flummoxing plot twist ... The book reads like a love letter to not only the irrepressible Mrs. Burns, but to the city of San Francisco itself, with especial attention lavished upon the gilded excess and savage grotesqueries of its lawless prewar years ... Lisa Riggin’s book on Inez came out a year before Bloom’s, but Bloom’s is the far more satisfactory read, in terms of pacing, storytelling, and research; he spent over 25 years reconstructing Burns’ world, and it shows.
The author’s prose is breezy and conversational, and his subject is controversial enough to make the book read more like a thriller than an academic biography, despite the breadth of scholarship on display. The book is less engaging when Bloom strays from his main subject to report on the large cast of supporting characters. Thankfully, the author seems to understand this, and he keeps the spotlight shining squarely on the mercurial Burns. Bloom rescues an important figure from the dustbin of history. Burns receives the storyteller she deserves and can now occupy her proper place in the intersectional histories of feminism, law, and the San Francisco underworld.
