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A review by melissa_who_reads
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott
4.0
Enjoyed listening to this. Very interesting history both of Chicago at that time and that portion of the history of prostitution and "white slavery." As a Chicagoan, found one story unbelievable just because time and space don't work that way (Minna rushing to defend a former sex worker from a beating defied all logic: perhaps someone called her on the phone while the beating was going on, but she still had to get from the west side to the near south side while the beating was still going on ... and that seemed extraordinary to me). Some language seemed very dated to me (the frequent use of the word "harlot" for example).
But it was an interesting story filled with interesting characters, from the underworld side of the Levee, to the various stripes of politicians, to the crooked policemen, and finally to the reformers, who ranged from Christian zealots to lawyers who wanted to clean up corruption. The book centers on the two sisters who ran the Everleigh Club, a famous upscale brothel that hosted men from the wealthy upper tiers of society - and since they constructed layer upon layer of lies and obfuscations about their own lives (and kept confidences about "their boys" who patronized their club), their story is a bit of a maze of finding the most likely truths among the lies.
But it was an interesting story filled with interesting characters, from the underworld side of the Levee, to the various stripes of politicians, to the crooked policemen, and finally to the reformers, who ranged from Christian zealots to lawyers who wanted to clean up corruption. The book centers on the two sisters who ran the Everleigh Club, a famous upscale brothel that hosted men from the wealthy upper tiers of society - and since they constructed layer upon layer of lies and obfuscations about their own lives (and kept confidences about "their boys" who patronized their club), their story is a bit of a maze of finding the most likely truths among the lies.