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Jan
11
Brothels and Madams and Whores, Oh My!
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Available in paperback from Random House
Karen Abbott’s Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul was such a shining highlight of my recent backlist reading binge that I simply HAD to give it its own post. This book has been on my radar for quite some time (I love a good book about the oldest profession in the world. See also: Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women by Alexa Albert), and when I found out that Karen Abbott is coming to Richmond to promote her new book about Gypsy Rose Lee I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.
I mean, first a book about a brothel and then one about a burlesque performer? This is an author after my own heart!
And the book? It’s a total treat! Sin in the Second City is true narrative nonfiction—in fact, it is one of the best examples of the genre I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading—and I loved the hell out of it. I even considered the whole career-as-a-madam thing, but, well…let’s just say Abbott does a nice job of balancing the elegant and luxurious aspects of a madam’s lifestyle with some remarkably unsavory bits.
To spare you from a supergushy recap, here’s the publisher’s description.
Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history–and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club’s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh “butterflies” awaited their arrival. Courtesans named Doll, Suzy Poon Tang, and Brick Top devoured raw meat to the delight of Prince Henry of Prussia and recited poetry for Theodore Dreiser. Whereas lesser madams pocketed most of a harlot’s earnings and kept a “whipper” on staff to mete out discipline, the Everleighs made sure their girls dined on gourmet food, were examined by an honest physician, and even tutored in the literature of Balzac.
Not everyone appreciated the sisters’ attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters’ most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of “white slavery”——the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America’s sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Abbott brings the Everleigh sisters and their contemporaries in Chicago’s underworld so fully to life that Sin in the Second City reads like a novel. The kind of novel one gets lost in for hours at a time only to emerge with genuine surprise that the modern world remains intact. The ins and outs (pun totally intended) of brothel life are presented in fascinating, vivid detail, and many familiar characters from early 20th century history make cameo appearances, including a young Al Capone and several of his bad boy buddies.
As if that’s not enough to fill a book, Abbott also presents the anti-prostitution crusaders who make it their lives’ work to get the cathouses shut down, and let me tell you, there are some larger then life characters on that side of the battle as well. Sin in the Second City reminds us that the tension between America’s Puritan roots and humans’ desire for debauchery is nothing new, and she traces the phenomenon of human trafficking and so-called “white slavery” back to (at least) the late 1800s. And she does it all without seeming one bit political or polemical. It is obvious that Abbott chose her topic not to make a point or ask readers to take sides but because this is a great story.
And she is one hell of a storyteller.
Readers of history will find much to love in this terrific book, and those who are looking for an entrée into reading narrative nonfiction will not find a better point from which to start. Put down the remote, turn off HBO’s “Cathouse,” (come on, you know you’ve watched it), and pick up a copy of Sin in the Second City. You can thank me later.
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I just reviewed Gypsy Rose, and it was wonderfully written. Ironically, even though I live close to Chicago, I didn’t read Sin in the Second City. Might have to pick it if it is as good as the second one.
Jennifer-Girls Gone Reading´s last [type] ..Review- The Orchid Affair
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rebecca Schinsky and audreybayley. audreybayley said: Brothels and Madams and Whores, Oh My! | The Book Lady's Blog: Sin in the Second City is true narrative nonficti… http://bit.ly/dRP6qb [...]
Hey, I’ve always said non-fiction can be the furthest thing from boring, with the right author. I’m so there.
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Sounds like pure awesomeness –!!!
I’m so glad you loved this book! I loved it too.
I also already got a copy of Gypsy Rose which I’ll hopefully be delving into soon.
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Been dying to read this one for a while — loved this review. I just got The Girls of Murder City and I think I should do a readalong with this book!
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Ins and outs of brothel life? You crack me up!
What a wonderful review. Thanks for putting this book on my radar screen, I love non-fiction books which are so amazing they would be unbelievable that if they would be labeled “fiction” they’d be laughed out of the book store.
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I picked up this book recently because it actually reminded me of the sort of non-fiction insight that I enjoy so much with Erik Larson’s books, specifically Devil in the White City. Not to mention both Larson’s book and this book you’ve reviewed take place in Chicago, a city I’ve always enjoyed visiting, so I’m ready to read this one soon.
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I am so glad to see Karen getting book love from The Book Lady! Sin in the Second City was such a great book. The Everleigh sisters were larger than life and their story fascinating. I have American Rose and can’t wait to read it.
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This sounds ridiculously exciting!
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This has been on my TBR pile for forever! I definitely need to find the time to read it after reading your post. I think I’m going to love it too.
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