A review by siria
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott
3.0
This is a pretty entertaining, if somewhat shallow, slice of pop history which derives much of its verve from its vivid subject matter: the Everleigh Club, an exclusive, world-famous brothel founded in fin de siècle Chicago, populated by Balzac-quoting prostitutes and run by sisters Minna and Ada. Sin and the Second City covers the club's foundation, its rise to notoriety, its ongoing battle with reformers and religious campaigners, and its eventual closure, and it rattles along at a breezy pace.
As a narrative, it's very readable, a sort of nonfiction equivalent of an airport thriller, though as history it's much less satisfying. There are things which Abbott claims are unknown which she could surely have made an attempt at verifying (though I'm sure that doing so would remove a little of the story's glamour and mystique), things which she states as fact which are surely invented (how on earth does she know what people were thinking or feeling at particular moments?), things which are not explored as thoroughly as they could be (race, gender; the fates of some of the prostitutes who passed through the Everleigh Club, because I'm sure some of them at least could be traced).
Abbott's desire to romanticise the sisters—so much classier than those other madams! and of course she never even tries to question their assertions that they never engaged in the practice of buying women or coercing them into prostitution, though by her own account they barter with another madam over a prostitute at least once—is super problematic on a couple of levels, particularly a class one. Have sex with someone for 50 cents: Awful! Be referred to in the text as a whore! Have sex with someone for $500: Well, nothing inherently wrong with that! Be referred to in the text as a courtesan! Blergh.
Great subject matter, but could probably be treated much more thoughtfully by another writer.
As a narrative, it's very readable, a sort of nonfiction equivalent of an airport thriller, though as history it's much less satisfying. There are things which Abbott claims are unknown which she could surely have made an attempt at verifying (though I'm sure that doing so would remove a little of the story's glamour and mystique), things which she states as fact which are surely invented (how on earth does she know what people were thinking or feeling at particular moments?), things which are not explored as thoroughly as they could be (race, gender; the fates of some of the prostitutes who passed through the Everleigh Club, because I'm sure some of them at least could be traced).
Abbott's desire to romanticise the sisters—so much classier than those other madams! and of course she never even tries to question their assertions that they never engaged in the practice of buying women or coercing them into prostitution, though by her own account they barter with another madam over a prostitute at least once—is super problematic on a couple of levels, particularly a class one. Have sex with someone for 50 cents: Awful! Be referred to in the text as a whore! Have sex with someone for $500: Well, nothing inherently wrong with that! Be referred to in the text as a courtesan! Blergh.
Great subject matter, but could probably be treated much more thoughtfully by another writer.