When I first started reading The Madam, I fell in love with the beautiful writing, but by end, I was exhausted of it. I just wanted her to say things without trying to be so artistic.

I realize that this book is based on the author's true grandmother's life and while I can appreciate that, I didn't feel the book showed enough motivation/character development to make the things the characters did plausible. For example, the most pivotal part of the novel--Alma deciding to run a brothel out of her home--seemed to not be a struggle at all. Like she just decided what the hell? It didn't work for me that she made such a borderline moral decision without much inner conflict. And it seems like most of the events in the story were done without much personal conflict. It just didn't work for me.

My favorite character in the story was the nun. I liked that she was different and human and I liked a lot of the author's observations about nuns v. prostitutes.

All in all, I would say the reading was fast, but it was hard to get into the lives of the characters because of the layer of flowery language between the reader and the characters.