Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul

published	July 10th 2007 by Random House
binding	Hardcover
isbn	1400065305 (isbn13: 9781400065301)
pages	384
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...more [close] 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. With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, “Hinky Dink” Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott’s colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our nation’s hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America’s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity. Visit www.sininthesecondcity.com to learn more! Praise for Sin in the Second City: “Assiduously researched… [Sin in the Second City] describes a popular culture awash in wild tales of sexual abuse, crusading reformers claiming God on their side, and deep suspicion of the threat posed by “foreigners” to the nation’s Christian values.” ——Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Lavish in her details, nicely detached in her point of view, [and with] scrupulous concern for historical accuracy, Ms. Abbott has written an immensely readable book. Sin in the Second City offers much in the way of reflection for those interested in the unending puzzle that goes by the name of human nature." — The Wall Street Journal "Abbott's first book is meticulously researched and entertaining... a colorful history of old Chicago that reads like a novel." ——The Atlanta Journal Constitution “With gleaming prose and authoritative knowledge Abbott elucidates one of the most colorful periods in American history, and the result reads like the very best fiction. Sex, opulence, murder — What's not to love?” —— Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants “A detailed and intimate portrait of the Ritz of brothels, the famed Everleigh Club of turn-of-the-century Chicago. Sisters Minna and Ada attracted the elites of the world to such glamorous chambers as the Room of 1,000 Mirrors, complete with a reflective floor. And isn’t Minna’s advice to her resident prostitutes worthy advice for us all: “Give, but give interestingly and with mystery.”’ —— Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City “Karen Abbott has combined bodice-ripping salaciousness with top-notch scholarship to produce a work more vivid than a Hollywood movie.” —— Melissa Fay Greene, author of There is No Me Without You “Sin in the Second City is a masterful history lesson, a harrowing biography, and - best of all - a superfun read. The Everleigh story closely follows the turns of American history like a little sister. I can't recommend this book loudly enough.” —— Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng “This is a story of debauchery and corruption, but it is also a story of sisterhood, and unerring devotion. Meticulously researched, and beautifully crafted, Sin in the Second City is an utterly captivating piece of history.” —— Julian Rubinstein, author of Ballad of the Whiskey Robber [close]
date added	03-01-07 edit book

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Martin rated it:

03/06/08

bookshelves: 2008books

Read in March, 2008

In “Sin in the Second City” Karen Abbott tells us in her subtitle that the book is ultimately about “the Battle for America's Soul.” Pretty heady! I suppose that the battle still persists to this day, so I shouldn’t have expected a victor in the book itself, yet was left feeling unsatisfied at not even having a side to root for. Abbott seemingly couldn’t decide if she was writing a slice-of-life about Chicago’s vice district at the turn of the century, a profile of two successfu...more In “Sin in the Second City” Karen Abbott tells us in her subtitle that the book is ultimately about “the Battle for America's Soul.” Pretty heady! I suppose that the battle still persists to this day, so I shouldn’t have expected a victor in the book itself, yet was left feeling unsatisfied at not even having a side to root for. Abbott seemingly couldn’t decide if she was writing a slice-of-life about Chicago’s vice district at the turn of the century, a profile of two successful sisters running a posh brothel, or a narrative history of the battle between reformers and vice lords. Elements of all three different books come to the fore at different times in the relatively scant 300 pages of text, with no one tack prevailing. I never felt that I had a satisfying level of detail about “the Levee” – the infamous vice district – or a real grasp of the tale of Ada and Minna Everleigh – the sister-proprietors of the infamous “Everleigh Club” – OR a clear-cut understanding of the major players and sequence of events in the battle between the reform movement and the criminal element. Ultimately, Abbott gives a muddled portrait of a bunch of people at the turn of the century who, while colorful enough, aren’t well-enough detailed to be compelling, or motivated well enough to be understandable, dropped into a sequence of events that seems dramatic but is utterly without stakes or importance.

This leads to the primary question I had with the book: who are we, the readers, supposed to root for (if anyone), and/or who does Abbott seem to prefer in this mini-epic “Battle”? I am also not so simple a reader as to require a “good guy” and a “bad guy” in the stories I read, but some person or people I could care about on more than a cursory level would have been sufficient. Seemingly, the Everleigh sisters, in trying to raise their whorehouse to a higher standard and cater to a more exclusive, monied clientele, are our heroes, as it were. But we know precious little about them, partially because they (presumably by necessity) obfuscate so much information about their lives, and partly because there are so many other outsize characters in the book that Abbott doesn’t have the time to invest them with anything other than the most limited amount of depth. The other characters in the Levee are mostly abominable: vicious pimps and madams, forcing their whores into disgusting and vile acts, while meting out healthy portions of abuse and disease. Nobody to sympathize with there… Abbott then treats the reformers of the time with disdain, portraying them as timorous moralizers, pedantic grandstanders, superficial busybodies. I suppose there is something postmodern in the idea that there are no heroes in this story, but one still gets the feeling that Abbott sides with the vice district, somehow wishing that prostitution, segregated from the mainstream of society, could entirely be elevated to the “classy” level of the Everleigh Club and allowed to continue on(?!). Certainly the reform-minded crusaders – religious and political – are not shown as heroic janitors of a social filth. Yet Chicago’s vice district IS clearly a rats’ nest of illness and misery – with the possible exception of the dubious accomplishments of the Everleigh Club in partially raising the brothel to a not-totally-disgusting-and-horrendous level.

In this book, it would seem a shame that the Everleigh Club was shuttered by an apprehensive and capricious mayor. It may be that it is meant to be a shame simply because of the changing of the times – the passing of an epoch. But I had a hard time working up a great deal of emotional nostalgia for the closing of Chicago’s fanciest whorehouse out of a pack of awful whorehouses. Is this the sort of changing of the times that we should lament? The end of the good times? (We aren’t even to the Roaring ‘20s yet!) Were these times really so good in the first place?? Abbott is at pains to downplay much of the basis for the moral fervor over “white slavery.” She seems largely to dismiss the idea advocated by the reformers: that credulous women from out of town were lured off train platforms into houses of ill repute by (moustache-twirling) villains. Instead, she indicates that many of these women chose “the life” for themselves. I both have a hard time believing this, and have a hard time accepting it as a mitigating factor in the brutal turn-of-the-century sex industry. Is it proto-feminism? A woman’s right to do with her body as she pleases? Based on some of the nasty anecdotes in the book, one would imagine it was anything but. Is she really advocating for women to be allowed to be publicly whipped in S&M-style displays for male titillation? (Such were some of the entertainments at the less-classy brothels.) Does anyone really think women were willingly and rationally choosing this for themselves? Yet Abbott’s authorial loyalties do seem to lie with her unruly, anti-heroic whores and madams. (Obviously, I just don’t get it.)

The book was interesting enough as a sketch of a wonderfully alien time and place, all taking place here in the city where I live and the streets where I walk. But beyond the curiosity factor, I did not find much of any substance – certainly nothing that would indicate this book was about the battle for America’s very soul! I would have appreciated Abbott tipping her hand more: why, aside from the vaguest modern-day resonances of religious people legislating morality, were the reformers so lame in her eyes? Conversely, Abbott would have been well served to detach herself and give us sympathetic characters on both sides of the battle: a compassionate reformer with the best interests of women and society at heart, clashing with a big-hearted madam just trying to make a living, to show the democratic conundrum between freedom and immorality. But the battle is inconsistently pitched, from an authorial perspective, and ultimately relegates the book into muddled, if interesting, purposelessness....less

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Cari rated it:

06/27/08

bookshelves: historical-fic, history, naughty

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Cari by: No one, or I'd have to be very angry with them.
recommends it for: Anyone who prefers their history wrapped up in the writing style of a romance novel.

Oh my, where to start? How about with a declaration:

I bloody hated this book.

No, hate is a strong word. It bored me while simultaneously making me vaguely nauseous.

I actually have to give Karen Abbott a few points: she's a talented writer, and she's a damn fine researcher. Her knowledge of her subject, the facts and history, are impeccable. She definitely did her homework, unlike quite a few academics, and I certainly applaud her for that.

But how does one make a book ...more Oh my, where to start? How about with a declaration:

I bloody hated this book.

No, hate is a strong word. It bored me while simultaneously making me vaguely nauseous.

I actually have to give Karen Abbott a few points: she's a talented writer, and she's a damn fine researcher. Her knowledge of her subject, the facts and history, are impeccable. She definitely did her homework, unlike quite a few academics, and I certainly applaud her for that.

But how does one make a book about a high-class elitist brothel in turn of the century Chicago boring?

It seems as if she accumulated so much knowledge that she based her story around getting all the facts in, weaving the narrative around each bit of information that she had collected. The result is flat with a fair bit of repetition.

When writing non-fiction, it's an odd choice to flip styles back and forth from an outside, summary-type narrative to a way of story-telling that is basically fiction. (For instance, a passage from page 78, "Minna flung open the door and saw the thief prone on the bed. Daisy was removing a container of powder from her dresser. 'Excuse Daisy for a few minutes, please,' Minna said, sighing. Daisy stepped out into the hallway.") While Abbott's research and facts, as well as her understanding of the context in which this all happened, is correct and well-documented, in her attempts to tell a story she delves into fiction, attributing words, gestures, and emotions no one could know of who wasn't there. How do we know she "flung" open the door, how the thief was laying or if he was even on the bed, if Daisy was retrieving that powder right then, if that's actually what Minna said, and if she sighed as she said it? We don't. Making stuff up, elaborating on already salacious facts is completely unnecessary and totally out of place in a nonfiction book. The pendulum swinging from a nonfiction telling of facts to a story full of assumptions and elaborations happens constantly and without being particularly smooth. It's jarring, to say the least, unprofessional, and really takes away from the otherwise incredible research the author did so diligently. Such story-telling in a study of history is not necessary, especially when the chosen subject is so legendary, lascivious, and intriguing all on its own. I fault her for making up much of the dialogue in the text and inventing "creative" descriptions regarding the day/weather/neighborhood/etc. Such liberties are out of place in a nonfiction work. If she wanted to do that, she should have gone for historical fiction.

The book is, at first glance, about the Everleigh Club, the infamous high class brothel run by the Everleigh sisters (not their real names) that became a focal point in the fight against vice in turn of the century Chicago. That's what the back of the book says. That's what the author says in her author's note. That's what it's marketed as. But really, a vast majority of the book is dedicated to protesters, to those trying to stamp out vice in Chicago, and a major chunk of the sections that focus on that is written in the story-telling format outlined above. Granted, one could not write about the Everleigh Club without writing about the reformers; they're entwined and their histories run together. But gradually, the story becomes more about the reformers than about the sisters. Juggling back and forth quickly bogs down the "story," and more focus is spent on the religious and political men fighting the vice district than on the vice district itself. Not wrong, but not quite what it was labeled as.

So it was boring. But also, Abbott vaguely disturbs me by how much she holds up the Everleigh sisters as early feminists, as woman just trying to make their way in the world while at the same time cleaning up a business, making it safer, cleaner, and more respectable for the girls who worked in their house...and as a result were unfairly targeted by small-minded men. Abbott holds these women up above the rest of prostitution as if they were saints, but let's be honest: they weren't being saints, they were thinking of profit. Keep your girls clean and happy and pretty, and you can charge more and the men will keep coming back. They were not feminists, they were not saints - they were madams. Abbott gives the Everleigh sisters halos while at the same time painting the reformers as fundie whackjobs. She pushes one to the extreme of "good," the other to the extreme of "bad," and all the interesting middle ground is lost in this ridiculous canonizing and demonizing of groups of people. She repeatedly dismisses the reformers' concerns about "white slavery" (the luring/kidnapping of young girls who are then "broken in" before being sold to brothels) as insignificant and not connected to the sisters' business. The Everleigh sisters, though stylish and certainly clever, were allied with many of the city's most ruthless and barbaric operators of the city for the purpose of buying off police and elected officials. Having fine furnishings, lovely clothes, and a gold piano do not change the fundamental nature of a business.

Whoring is still whoring, even if it's "high class," and the blatant admiration Abbott expresses in her book--as well as the fact that a lot of people seem to be falling for it, just check the Amazon.com reviews--is disturbing, at least to this reader....less

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Jodi marked it as to-read

08/11/07

bookshelves: chicago, to-read

August 12, 2007
Ladies of the Evening
By ADA CALHOUN

SIN IN THE SECOND CITY

Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul.

By Karen Abbott.

Illustrated. 356 pp. Random House. $25.95.

In the brutal red-light district of Chicago, at the dawn of the 20th century, most brothels emphasized “efficiency instead of fantasy.” But at the Everleigh Club, a double mansion on South Dearborn Street, the “butterflies” wore evening gowns, ate bonbons and read Balzac. ...more

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Desiree rated it:

01/05/08

bookshelves: ohmychicago

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: puritans

As a general rule of thumb, I like all books about Chicago history because there's really no way to go wrong with tales about our city. So I'd been wanting to read this book since it was released, and finally, my most excellent book club the Literary Brats got down to it.

So I also think you'd really have to screw up to write a bad book about Chicago history. This book is about professional screwing and Karen Abbott is some screwball kinda writer. How difficult is it to write a great book abo...more As a general rule of thumb, I like all books about Chicago history because there's really no way to go wrong with tales about our city. So I'd been wanting to read this book since it was released, and finally, my most excellent book club the Literary Brats got down to it.

So I also think you'd really have to screw up to write a bad book about Chicago history. This book is about professional screwing and Karen Abbott is some screwball kinda writer. How difficult is it to write a great book about shenanigans in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century and the whoring high life? Corruption, vice, horse manure, tawdry sex, lots of mirrors -- this should be a book that writes itself. I was expecting sordid tales about what went on in the brothels of the Levee District (at least in the Everleigh Club, which the book centres on), more concrete histories about the Everleigh sisters who owned the brothel (or at least, Abbott's opinion on what may have been their rightful biography), life histories of the more prominent harlots at the club and more detailed descriptions of services tendered.

What you end up getting are cursory chaptered details on the above, with too much emphasis on the puritanical fight to eradicate the Levee District and vice in Chicago. Sure, that is part of the neighbourhood's history, but we know how that story ends -- but why don't we know more about Suzy Poon Tang, the exotic courtesan from China who arrived in Chicago via Singapore (!)? Why aren't we offered an opinion on whether or not Abbott believes the Everleigh sisters were prostitutes themselves before they made their fortune? Why is the most extraordinary sexual favour in the book a millionaire patron who enjoys tossing gold coins onto a harlot's pundendum? Truly, reading this book is like having sex without orgasm as someone pounds a bible on your head.

To make matters worse, Abbott lifts many passages and facts from a subjective biography of the Everleigh sisters, "Come to My Parlor." And, she has no ties to Chicago apart from the fact that a great-great-grandmother moved here from Eastern Europe and was never heard of again. The book launch party was in New York, for god's sakes. I felt like the book was a chick lit version of a history book, and for book clubs who met in cute Bohemian cafes sipping chai teas and noshing on cupcakes, not book clubs who meet online and like pizza.

Still, I enjoyed the moments of Chicago life in the 1900s and loved the descriptions of the city then -- we were some kind of piece of work. I appreciate new trivia, such as the term "lay" coming from the Everleigh moniker. I also found it extremely fascinating that 100 years later, us and our world has changed so much, but the basest of human nature remains unchanged and just as repulsive. But please, can someone just tell me more about Suzy Poon Tang?...less

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Sharon rated it:

06/27/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Sharon by: Christopher
recommends it for: Chicagoans

This book held my interest, and I read it really quickly. It's an account of Chicago's -- actually it's safe to say -- the world's most famous madams, Minna and Ada Everleigh. And in my view, with Minna and Ada, there's nothing not to love.

One of Minna's quotes: "You get everything in a lifetime," and she and her older sister Ada really did. Another of Minna's quotes: "You have the whole night before you and one $50 client is more desirable than five $10 ones. Less wear and t...more This book held my interest, and I read it really quickly. It's an account of Chicago's -- actually it's safe to say -- the world's most famous madams, Minna and Ada Everleigh. And in my view, with Minna and Ada, there's nothing not to love.

One of Minna's quotes: "You get everything in a lifetime," and she and her older sister Ada really did. Another of Minna's quotes: "You have the whole night before you and one $50 client is more desirable than five $10 ones. Less wear and tear."

So this is a story of whores/prostitutes who made money in Chicago's red light district from 1900 to 1911, and the book is also a great catalog of mob members and elected officials who helped them out (or hindered as the case may be). Minna and Ada, southern ladies, born in the 1860s were sold into the business by their parents who couldn't financially recover post-Civil War. Minna and Ada started out as prostitutes, and then saved/found enough money to become madams, but they were different kinds of madams. Everleigh girls, actually Everleigh butterflies, had to know their Balzac and other prominent philosphers, and there would be no drugs or beer (only wine).

The Everleighs are colorful, intriguing, provocative ladies and Karen Abbott does a good job of piecing their lives together, all the way to the closing of their Chicago brothel in 1911 and their deaths in New York City (Minna 1866 - 1948, Ada 1864 - 1960). Very interesting note: the Everleigh sisters spent their final days hanging out with Theodore Dreiser.

I think there may be at least one serious error in the book, but otherwise, I think the book is fairly accurate and historical, and the book held my interest from cover to cover. The possible error is that Abbott says the word "lay" comes from a shortened version of "Everleigh" and "getting Everleighed." I shared this info with my good buddy,word etymologist friend, and he said "maybe, BIG MAYBE, but really doubtful" because people have been "laying" down to get laid for some time before the Everleighs. All in all though, this is a good book, and Chicagoans especially should read it....less

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Keri rated it:

01/01/08

bookshelves: recentlyread

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: anyone who loved Devil in the White City

I absolutely loved this book. I found it in my local library by chance and I'm glad I did. I love historical books about Chicago. Sin in the Second City has much in common with Devil in the White City as it takes place roughly during the same time period in Chicago (around 1900).

Although the subject matter may turn some people off, I loved learning about the history of prostitution in Chicago. It was surprising to discover that this is a true story. Maybe it is naive of me but I kept having...more

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Joseph rated it:

(review of isbn 0812975995)

07/10/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2008

I don't typically like non-fiction books written in a novelistic format. The idea of the author narrating events and providing descriptions for real events based on their own imagination seems to undercut the whole point of writing a non-fiction book.

Perhaps it's due to the subject matter, but for this book, that approach seems to work. It's not that the material is so shocking (tales of white slavery at the beginning of the twentieth century pale in comparison to the horrors of the early ...more

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Alice rated it:

03/09/08

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in March, 2008

"I want to stress that this is a work of nonfiction; every character I describe lived and breathed, if not necessarily thrived, on the Levee's mean streets," writes author Karen Abbott in her introduction.

What immediately bothered me about the book, though, was the extent to which Karen Abbott took liberties to 'fictionalize' her non-fiction, adding window-dressing and drapery to an already rich tapestry of research material.

Take this section, for instance:

"'It's going...more

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Sarah rated it:

07/13/08

bookshelves: contest, released

Read in July, 2008

"I'm getting Everleighed tonight." (p. 22) That quote, part slogan and part red light district slang sums up Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott best.

This well researched book with an ample bibliography and notes section covers the rise and fall of the Everleigh Club in Chicago. As there are so many people of interest on both sides of the issue (those running the brothels and those trying to close them down) that the Abbot includes her own three page cast of characters.

At th...more

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Pete rated it:

08/28/07

bookshelves: 2007

Read in August, 2007

Abbott's book is an entertaining enough read, and has plenty of interesting tidbits of Chicago history, but is nothing spectacular. It's interesting to me how open prostitution was in the not-so-distant past, and one has to wonder if the current condition is an improvement. I was walking on Lower Wacker the other day, and there were some miserable looking hookers. It was dark and dank and depressing. Considering our apparent inability to abolish the oldest profession, I wonder: is the false glam...more

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5 comments

Christia rated it:

08/04/08

Read in August, 2008

A fascinating peek into the Levee, a section of turn of the century Chicago with a truly scandalous reputation. More specifically, the true story of sisters Ada and Minna Everleigh who after carefully and painstakingly researching brothels across the country, re-invented themselves as madams of the most upscale brothel in the town. It was said that the Everleigh Club was one of the most popular destinations for those visiting Chicago, complete with theme rooms, poetry quoting "butterflies...more

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Robert rated it:

12/21/07

Read in September, 2007

As an aficionado of Chicago history, I just had to read this one. (In the interest of disclosure and with a note of shameless self-promotion, I'm researching and writing a history that covers the same time period as "Sin in the Second City," though it will be a much different book.) "Sin" is a fascinating, richly written and well-researched look at the Everleigh Sisters and other prostitutes and madams of early 1900s Chicago. It's a must-read for Chicago history buffs, and wi...more

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Nancy rated it:

(review of isbn 0812975995)

07/18/08

bookshelves: history---us

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: no one

Once again I seem to be swimming against the tide of opinion on this book. Plainly and simply speaking, I didn't think it was all that great. The subject matter was interesting, and it's fun to be a voyeur sometimes, looking into people's shady lives, but I just didn't think it was that well written -- kind of dry in the execution. I love history (it was my undergrad, grad and postgrad field) and I love history when it's written so that the general reader can read, relate to and understand i...more

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Scot rated it:

04/22/08

Read in April, 2008

This is a riveting account of the professional lives of the distinctive Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, who ran the most celebrated bordello in Chicago in the early years of the 20th century. The story spans life in the Loop (and beyond) from the days of the Columbian Exposition in 1892 (echoes of Devil in the White City) to the rise of Al Capone. You don't have to be from or even know Chicago to become engrossed in the tales of moral battles of righteous reformers dedicated to end what they...more

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Tina rated it:

06/10/08

I lived in Chicago for several years so it was nice to see some of the pictures, especially since the locale of the infamous Everleigh Club now contains a couple of high-rise, public housing projects. The area is undergoing development lately with nice condos and apartments mingled closely to the high-rises. I like historical accounts of the miscreants of society, and this was pretty good. The two sisters trying to bring some "respect" to the world's oldest profession - it almost ma...more

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liirogue rated it:

04/26/08

I really enjoyed this - a mix of a biography and a social history that made you feel like you wish you could have been there to see it.

The book begins as a biography of the Everleigh sisters, the upscale madams of a famous Chicago brothel at the turn of the century. The entire time the author was describing their life and their house, I wanted to be there. I wanted to see for myself the beautiful artwork and the rich patrons.

The book loses a little steam when it begins to look at how s...more

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Pam rated it:

05/04/08

Read in May, 2008

recommends it for: Kir, Adele, even that hooker-lover Otis if she could bother to create a goodreads acct

3.5 stars. Hookers, graft and corruption in early 1900s Chicago - - you had me at hookers. This felt similar to "Devil in the White City" except no serial killer (sorry killer-lovers) just the political and religious battles surrounding prostitution. Sounds like Chicago was hella more interesting back in the day, although yes, stinkier/dirtier and disease-riddled, and likely more prone to disfiguring industrial-type accidents. Still, I'd go back in my time capsule to check it out, and...more

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Sharon rated it:

09/06/07

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: history buffs, would be madams

This book was a real page turner, and a fascinating and well researched snapshot of Chicago history. The writing is excellent and reads like fiction through much of the book. I loved reading the descriptions of the brothels and the daily life of their inhabitants, particularly what set the Everleigh club apart from lower institutions. I did feel that the events and and the more minor players were underdeveloped at times, which made some of the people hard to track and remember. The first half...more