It’s hard to imagine anyone more perfectly positioned in history than the chameleon-like Indra Devi, rightly credited in Michelle Goldberg’s exhilarating new biography, THE GODDESS POSE, with pioneering yoga as a physically, socially and spiritually acceptable discipline in the Western world.

Born at the close of the 19th century (1899), living at her famous frantic pace throughout the entire 20th century, and dying almost serenely at the dawn of the 21st (2002), Devi witnessed virtually every major conflict, cultural phenomenon and political upheaval of what arguably has been the most turbulent era in global history. And she did so on no fewer than four continents.

Born in Latvia into the Russian minor nobility and periodically reinventing herself through half-a-dozen name and career changes, as well as numerous geographical moves (she was technically a stateless person for much of her life), the complex woman who ultimately identified as Indra Devi didn’t achieve sustained success as a proponent and teacher of yoga until she was almost a senior citizen. At a time of life when many career professionals --- especially those in the physical arts --- are gearing down into well-earned retirement, Devi was relentlessly immersed in the American celebrity lecture circuit and teaching brand-name stars like Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe in her Hollywood studio.

"[W]ithin the context of Devi’s own exploratory life and times, [Goldberg] offers readers an even-handed sampling of representative leading lights, trends and opinions through which Devi was influenced, and from which she eventually developed her own philosophy and esthetic."

Finding your personal and public groove in late middle age is perhaps not as unusual for “zoomers,” the actively elder baby-boomer (post-1945) generation that exerts so much financial and political clout these days. But as Goldberg, an award-winning investigative journalist and initially underwhelmed yoga student, recognizes throughout THE GODDESS POSE, Devi was consistently atypical of her own era. She attracted attention in exotic and unusual (sometimes even potentially dangerous) contexts by living as an extreme definition of the pre-feminist “free spirit.”

To her credit as a diligent and meticulous author (don’t overlook the impressive volume of source notes closing her book), Goldberg does not take any easy roads through yoga history and fashion; nor does she pose, goddess-like or not, as an expert on the relative merits of yoga’s several dozen classic postures, or asanas. Instead, within the context of Devi’s own exploratory life and times, she offers readers an even-handed sampling of representative leading lights, trends and opinions through which Devi was influenced, and from which she eventually developed her own philosophy and esthetic. In other words, if you want to learn in detail about the many gurus, sources, branches, styles and practices of yoga, you want another book, not this one.

What Goldberg achieves admirably, however --- perhaps as a fortunate by-product of tireless research in compiling Devi’s own life --- is in providing brief but often telling insight into the lives of celebrated, infamous, notorious, or downright dangerous individuals (yogis and others) she befriended, counselled or instructed, even as their names appeared in numerous media headlines.

Given her vast network and incessant travel between east and west, it might seem counterintuitive that great gaps and fictions still exist in the chronology and factual integrity of Devi’s life. But such is the case, despite Goldberg’s outstanding efforts to resolve a considerable amount of mystery about her activities and associations. Devi was the kind of individual who left a clear personal trail only when it suited her to do so, a trait that also extended to her long series of intimate relationships, each of which she treated according to a rather rigid, even cruel, interpretation of Buddhist detachment.

While Goldberg has produced a superb life story of a very colorful yet elusive individual, it seems a shame that she (or circumstances) chose not to include a selection of historical photos within THE GODDESS POSE, as most biographies of this kind do. And there are certainly plenty of images online to choose from that would have contributed to a much more compelling cover design than the unimpressive sketched portrait given. Ironically, she even mentions specific photos at least half a dozen times throughout more than 300 pages of unbroken text. To stimulate and then thwart a reader’s visual curiosity in this way is both puzzling and frustrating. Perhaps future printings can rectify this failing: the quality of Goldberg’s painstaking research and expressive writing richly deserve it.