Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for Americas Soul by Karen Abbott

Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for Americas Soul Reviews

• 
  Desiree Koh

  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?
• 
  Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell

  
  
  
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  Get ready to clutch your pearls, because this tawdry piece of history is something you didn't learn in high school. SIN IN THE SECOND CITY, in case its title wasn't warning enough, is about prostitution in turn-of-the-century Chicago, specifically the Everleigh Club, which was a brothel run by two gently-bred sisters, Minna and Aida Everleigh.
  
  
  
  One of the criticisms of this book is that the author, Karen Abbott, takes a lot of liberties with the narrative. It reads like one of those trashy but epic sagas from the 1970s, with its purple prose, sensationlist writing, and scandalous content. I personally like those kinds of novels, so that was pure heaven for me and kept the tone from being too dry (something I hate when reading nonfiction, because it makes me feel like I'm being lectured at, and then I get bored and inevitably lose interest), but if that is a peeve for you, then yes, you will probably not like this book.
  
  
  
  The saga spun these pages is too complicated to recollect completely, but the gist is that the Everleigh Club was the best place to go if you wanted to sleep with a woman who was not your wife. Minna and Aida wanted to be the best damn madams in Chicago, and they were willing to spend money to do this. They hired doctors to check out the girls and make sure they were healthy and free of disease; they fed the girls and the guests well, with totally sumptuous feasts that made me drool a little just from the description; and the decor was, literally, out of this world - think fountains that gush scented oil, and entire rooms done completely in gold leaf, with a gold piano, to boot!
  
  
  
  Also of note is a prostitute from China named Suzy Poon Tang (apparently where the slang "poon tang" comes from) who was so good at her job, that she ended up getting married to one of her clients after just a few sessions of working at the Everleigh Club. There was also some brouhaha when a black boxer, Jack Johnson, wanted to come into the club. Because segregation was still active at this time, the sisters were highly reluctant, but his manager basically forced them into relenting; it worked out, though - he was hot, the prostitutes - "butterflies," they were called in Everleigh - adored him, everybody had a great time, and segregation got to suck it...literally (one would assume).
  
  
  
  You can probably guess how the story ends. People in power decided that vice was becoming too unpopular and they began systematically cracking down on pleasure houses as tales of "white slavery" (read: middle or upper-middle-class girls getting tricked into the sex industry by mustache-twirling con-artists) began saturating the papers, and putting fear into decent folk. Everleigh Club was one of the last to go, and signified the downfall of an era. Some of the names in here you will probably recognize, because when some of the bigwigs lost their hand at prostitution, they turned their attentions to the big, booming industry of crime started by Al Capone and Jim Colosimo.
  
  
  
  SIN IN THE SECOND CITY was a fun book to carry around with me in public. I had a lot of people ask me what it was about, and their reactions were quite priceless in some cases. I enjoyed learning more about an era that I didn't really know much about before this, and it was cool to learn where the phrase "poon tang" actually came from. I do feel like the book was longer than it needed to be, especially towards the end, it felt like the content was being stretched thin. But if you like history, and if you like trashy historical romance novels, you and this book will get on like a house on fire.
  
  
  
  3 stars!
• 
  Alice

  "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 to be difficult, at first, I know,' Minna continued. She walked slowly up and down the line, a commander instructing her troops, arms folded, heels clacking."
  
  I found this style irritating and distracting. It made me doubt Abbott's usage of her sources. What were her sources anyway? I would have liked to hear more about them - and not just stuffed in the back in the bibliography. What source material is she relying upon? How credible is it?
  
  THAT ASIDE, I thought the actual story Abbott had to tell about the history of Chicago's vice district was interesting - if a little disjointed. There seemed to be so many different angles to the story, and the author seemed to dab a little in all of them, without going into much depth. There was a little about the reform movement, a little about the way Big Jim / Ike Bloom / Hinky Dink Kenna greased the wheels of law enforcement, a little about the schemings of Vic Shaw, a little about the Everleigh sisters themselves. Abbott gave a little of everything, but kept me wanting to know more about everything, too.
• 
  Madeline

  "In the winter of 1899, a train clattered toward Chicago, fat coils of smoke whipping the sky. Minna and Ada Everleigh sat together in a Pullman Palace car, sipping wine served by porters in white jackets and gloves. ...The air inside the car hung heavy and whisper-quiet, but the sisters were restless, giddy with plans: they would build upon what they had learned as madams in Omaha, Nebraska, and create the finest brothel in history."
  
  Man, who doesn't love a good old-timey hooker story? Karen Abbott's story of the Everleigh sisters' rise and fall in the vice district of early 20th-century Chicago is engrossing, well-researched, and fun. Minna and Ada Everleigh (not their real names, of course) came to Chicago with plans to start the best brothel in Chicago, and they were unique in that respect because they wanted to run a house where girls would want to work. Other brothels of the time got their girls by kidnapping, drugs, and rape, but the Everleigh sisters were different:
  
  "The Everleigh sisters vowed never to deal with pimps, desperate parents selling off children, panders, and white slavers. If you treated girls well, they would come begging for admittance. A prospective Everleigh courtesan must prove she's eighteen in order to earn an interview, understand exactly what the job entailed, and know she's free to leave anytime, for any reason, without penalty."
  
  Starting on this basis, the Everleigh sisters bought a house in Chicago's infamous Levee district, and soon created the most exclusive, beautiful, and famous brothel in Chicago. They entertained politicians, gangsters, playboys, and princes - they even, at one point, admitted a famous African-American boxer into the Everleigh Club, an act which was socially forbidden at the time (the girls all found the boxer delightful, and there was no trouble).
  
  "[Clients] came to see the Moorish Room, featuring the obligatory Turkish corner, complete with overstuffed couches and rich, sweeping draperies; and the Japanese Parlor, with its ornately carved teakwood chair resting upon a dais, a gold sold canopy hovering above. (The Tribune noted that the Japanese Parlor was 'a harlot's dream of what a Japanese palace might look like inside.') In the Egyptian Room, a full-sized effigy of Cleopatra kept a solemn eye on the proceedings. The Chinese Room, entirely different from the ambiguously named Oriental Room, offered packages of tiny firecrackers and a huge brass beaker in which to shoot them - where else but at the Everleigh Club could a man indulge his adult and childish impulses?"
  
  Running the brothel wasn't easy, though. In addition to bribing the authorities and dealing with the competing madams trying to put them out of business, the Everleigh sisters also had to deal with the anti-prostitution reformers who flocked to the city. Around the time the Everleigh Club was taking off, newspapers were starting to feature stories of innocent girls trapped by the "white slave trade" (because obviously it's only sad when it happens to white virgins): young girls would be taken to dance halls, plied with liquor, and then drugged by their escorts. They would wake up in a brothel, having been raped multiple times, and were told that they would have to work there from now on. Reformers caught onto these stories and set about destroying the vice district in Chicago and ironically, they focused their attentions on the one brothel in the city that had nothing to do with the white slave trade: the Everleigh Club.
  
  Abbott's book focuses mostly on the reformers and the efforts of the Everleigh sisters to keep their club open (along with several other key Levee players), and this is to the detriment of the book. I wanted to book to be about the Everleigh Club and have the reformers be a subplot, but often it's the other way around. We get brief little anecdotes about the prostitutes and what went on behind closed doors at the Club (like one client who enjoyed tossing gold coins at his favorite girl, the deal being that she could keep whatever she caught in her snatch), but they're few and far between as we spend too much time with the reformers.
  
  Also, Abbott's glasses are a little bit too rose-tinted when she's discussing the issue of prostitution in the early 20th century. She treats the stories of drugged girls being violated by "professional rapists" (which has to be one of the Top Five Most Horrifying Job Titles) with a little too much unconcern, as if we're supposed to believe that those things don't happen nowadays. First off, old-timey rapists are still rapists, and stories of kidnapping and sexual slavery aren't improved by the fact that they're sepia-toned (so I don't view it as a good thing that the New York Times Book Review blurb called this book "a lush love letter to the underworld"). Second, while I understand that the purpose of Abbott's book isn't to educate her readers on modern sex trafficking, it would have been nice if there was some acknowledgement that the horrifying practices she describes are still going on today, and didn't disappear along with the Jazz Age.
  
  All in a all, a fun romp through Chicago's seedy history and a cool glimpse into the underworld and its people. It's History Lite, but it's well-written, well-researched, good unclean fun.
  
  
• 
  Erin

  Chicago has always been a super interesting city.
  
  - Chicago had one of if not THE first American serial killers
  - When I think of the 1930's its Chicago and Al Capone I picture
  - Oprah!
  
  Chicago is just a fascinating place. I've never been there despite the fact that I live within driving distance. I will get there one day.
  
  Sin in the Second City takes place between the 2 most infamous times in Chicago history. It takes place after the World's Fair and H.H. Holmes but before the rise of the modern Mafia and Al Capone. During a time when sex was openly for sale. Sex Work was technically illegal at the time but the authorities weren't actually doing anything...except collecting bribes from the pimps and madams that is.
  
  Most of Chicago's brothels were run by women, sometimes alone or with another woman, sometimes by a husband and wife. Sex work either as a madam or a harlot was one of the few places a woman could make a good paying living during those times. Most women weren't allowed to work outside of the home and if they did it was for little pay. Sex work was a life saver for some women but it was also extremely difficult work and it was dangerous.
  
  Two of the biggest madams in Chicago were the Everleigh's. Sisters Minna and Ada operated the Everleigh Club, the fanciest brothel in Chicago. Their girls were beautiful, clean and well trained. They played instruments, danced and spoke multiple languages. These were LADIES.
  
  Sin in the Second City explores the lives of Mina & Ada, some of their competitors, some of the girls, the cops & politicians on the take, the mustache Pete's and the reformers.
  
  I liked this book a lot. At various times while reading it I considered giving it 4.5 to 5 stars. I didn't in the end because I didn't think the author explored the racial aspects of the crackdown on "White Slavery" and the passage of The Mann Act. She only gives it a sentence or two when it deserved an entire chapter. The Mann Act was and is used to arrest Black and Brown men for having relationships with white women. Had she focused more on that, then 5 STARS all around.
  
  It was still a great read and I Googled alot of things that I'm sure Google is judging me for. And I do recommend it to my fellow history lovers.
  
  
• 
  BAM the enigma

  I read the author's Liar, Temptress, Soldier,Spy and really enjoyed the historical profiles. So when I saw this at a book sale I snapped it up.
  A decadent exploration of the seedy side of 1890s Chicago, Sin in the Second City delves in to the Mann Act, white slavery reformers and the puerile highlights of life in a den of inequity. The Everleigh sisters ran the most popular "men's club" in the country, spending $100,000 in protection money to the city to keep their racket going. They had the prettiest girls, the bubbliest champagne, the shiniest diamonds. But it couldn't last. And what exactly was their story?
  
  2017 Lenten nonfiction Buddy Reading Challenge book #39
• 
  robin friedman

  Chicago Vice
  
  Prostitution was rampant in urban America at the turn of the 20th Century with the influx of immigrants from foreign countries and rural areas, poor wages for young working women, and a repressive standard of sexual morality. Many cities had laws declaring prostitution illegal, but in fact they tried to control the spread of the "social evil" by establishing "segregated" areas where the practice was allowed to flourish. Chicago was well-known for its openness to prostitution, and its most notorious segregated area was called the "Levee" on the city's near south side. The Levee was a large, diverse area which included block upon block of "resorts", ranging from small 25 cent "cribs" to posh establishments that catered to the city's elite.
  
  In her recent book "Sin in the Second City", Karen Abbott, a former journalist, tells the fascinating story of the Levee with a focus on its most glamorous resort, the Everleigh Club and its Madams, the Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada. The Everleigh sisters were born Minna and Ada Simms in upper-class Virginia. After failed marriages, the sisters opened a brothel in Omaha, Nebraska and then, after investigating the market, opened what rapidly became the leading and most expensive brothel in the Levee, the Everleigh (named for "ever-lay") Club.
  
  Abbott tells the story of the Everleighs with verve and affection. They maintained a posh resort replete with a gold piano, works of art, heavy carpeted waiting rooms, elegant dinners and beautiful women who were known as "Butterflies". The Everleigh's prided themselves on the way in which they treated their butterflies. The Everleighs disdained the "white slave" traffic and carefully interviewed the young women wishing to work in their resort. The butterflies were free to leave their employment, received regular medical examinations, excellent food, and even some education. They were not whipped or brutalized, as was the case in many other brothels. The butterflies were allowed to see their boyfriends one evening per week if they wished and were encouraged to see themselves and their chosen career with respect. Part of the reason the Everleigh Club was able to succeed on this basis was because it was upscale and expensive, catering only to the wealthiest individuals.
  
  Abbott's book describes the interaction of the Everleigh Club and the sisters with the other inhabitants of the Levee. The Levee depended for its existence on graft and corruption within the Police Department and the political leaders of Chicago's first ward. The Everleigh sisters participated fully in keeping their area safe from the law. Many of the other madams and proprietors of resorts in the Levee were jealous of the success of the Everleigh Club and tried to ruin its business. The lives of the sisters were threatened and on one occasion, a rival madam tried to frame the sisters for murder.
  
  The Levee and the segregated districts attracted the attention of the reformers. A group called the "Purity League" was tireless in its attacks on the Red Light District and a minister named Ernest Bell in 1904 opened a "Midnight Mission" in the Levee. Beginning in 1904, he and his congregation held nightly vigils in front of the Everleigh Club. There was also political pressure that ultimately spelled the doom of the Levee. City and State attorneys became concerned about White Slave Traffic -- the forceful induction of young women into prostitution -- and through their efforts won a series of sensational cases against white slavers. Ultimately their efforts led to the passage of the Mann Act and to the closure of the Everleigh Club and the Levee. Abbott concludes, consistently with most people who have studied the matter, that the extent of "white slavery" was greatly overstated and that the Mann Act, with its loose and vague proscriptions, led to a curtailment of civil liberties far beyond the evil it was designed to correct.
  
  Abbott's book is less a work of historical scholarship than a book which brings a place and an era alive. In its opening chapters, before it gets bogged down with the varied attacks of the Levee, Abbott offers a compelling portrait of a place and an era with all its blemishes and excitements. She introduces, for example, the reader to "Big Matilda" who advertised herself as "Three hundred pounds of black passion: Rates 50c: Three for One Dollar." Abbott shows life in the Levee, including its local newspaper, the annual first ward Ball, the dance halls, and the payoffs. The lively individual scenes include a retelling of the visit of famous African American heavyweight boxer to the Everleigh Club and its unhappy consequences. In a passage late in the book, Minna Everleigh rushes into another brothel to try to rescue a former butterfly from a brutal beating at the hands of another madam. Abbot describes the life of a prostitute named Suzie, who came to the Everleigh Club from another resort and after one day left to marry her customer. For all the interest of many individual moments and the flowing character of some of the writing, the book seemed to me disjointed and hard to follow in places.
  
  The closing of the Levee in 1914 obviously did not mark the end of vice in Chicago. A young and rising Al Capone makes a cameo appearance in Abbott's book. The work of the ministers and the politicians did not end the social evil but merely moved it. Abbott's book is not a detailed study of prostitution, and it is tinged with her reserved but obvious admiration for the Everleigh sisters. The book seems to suggest a return to a carefully limited "segregated" area -- which some cities continue to use -- as a plausible means of controlling prostitution, and its apparent necessity to its customers and practitioners.
  
  Robin Friedman
• 
  Scott Rhee

  It's hard to believe that there was a time in American history where many of the major cities not only had open brothels but whole districts devoted to them.
  
  Prostitution was a business, and a flourishing one at that. One brothel in particular, the Everleigh Club in Chicago during the turn of the century, is the fascinating subject of Karen Abbot's book, "Sin in the Second City".
  
  The Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, were the famous madams of this brothel. It was so well-known and popular that there was a waiting list of prostitutes hoping to become one of the Everleigh girls. Cultivating strong political relationships with many figures in local and federal government, enforcing strict rules and regulations for both the working girls and patrons of their establishment, and ensuring a safe and healthy work environment for their girls, the Everleigh sisters were clearly progressive thinkers and advocates for better working conditions for the ladies in the world's oldest profession. Besides proper health care, the Everleigh sisters also believed in education for their girls.
  
  Legitimizing the brothel was not to be, however, due to a reform movement that swept the nation at the time. Started primarily by ministers, politicians, and temperance-minded housewives, this movement began as a fear-driven attempt to eradicate the "white slave trade", which many saw as an epidemic of our nation's young women being kidnapped, raped, and forced to live out the rest of their (short) lives as prostitutes.
  
  Several famous books (and even a genre of "white slave trade" motion pictures) added fuel to an already out-of-control conflagration of misinformation and utter nonsense. According to "scientific" studies, the average life expectancy of a white slave (a ruined young lady forced into prostitution) was only five years. These young women either died from untreated venereal disease, suicide, or murder.
  
  Of course, it's telling that tied into this white slavery craze was a deep-rooted racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, as it was "well-known" that most white slavers were Italians or Jews.
  
  Brothel after brothel were shut down in highly-publicized raids, but relatively untouched was the charismatic and soft-spoken Everleigh sisters, who lived to be in their 80s and cultivated deep friendships with such famous literary figures as Theodore Dreiser and Irving Wallace.
  
  Abbot's book is as entertaining as it is scandalous, with a cast of colorful characters, including Vic Shaw, the loud-mouthed big-bosomed madam that hated the Everleigh sisters so much that she tried to frame them for murder... twice!; Big Jim Colossimo, a spaghetti-loving gangster who may or may not have been executed by his own bodyguard, a young Alphonse Capone; the Reverand Ernest Bell, a devout minister who almost single-handedly led the crusade against the evil brothel owners of Chicago; and a slew of others with names like Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathhouse John Coughlin.
  
  "Sin in the Second City" is a fun little foray into the red-light district of American history.
• 
  Donna

  Oh I wanted this book to be so much more than it was. The story of the Everleigh sisters, along with Bathhouse John and Hinky Dick, is such a colorful one in the City of Chicago. Yet this book makes it almost (not quite) boring. Too much jumping around in time and storylines. It just didn't come together.
  
  If the data is so limited, this story could easily have been fictionalized and made really, really readable and exciting. Just because something is fiction does not mean it doesn't contain the truth.
• 
  Martin

  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.
• 
  Keri

  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 to check if this stuff was for real while reading the book.
  
  The Everleigh sisters were true entrepreneurs to have created the pre-eminent brothel in the U.S. Even so, I couldn't help but be shocked by the so-called respectable men who frequented such places...from the scions of the wealthy Chicagoans like Marshall Field Jr. to politicians and even princes. And of course, the stories of murders, robberies, drinking, and other illicit activities were interesting. After reading this book, I feel like I have an understanding of what life was like in the vice district in Chicago.
  
  The author cleverly set the book amidst the reform movement that ushered out the brothels and other dens of iniquity. There were so many funny, interesting, and depressing moments in this book. It's hard not to fall in love with the Everleigh sisters. They did try to put a touch of class to the prostitution industry. They certainly stood above the white slavers and pimps who took advantage of young rural and foreign girls coming to Chicago. That's not saying much but at least they were one touch of respectability in an otherwise despicable place.
  
  So if you have ever lived in Chicago or have any interest in Chicago history, you'll love this story. But even if you don't have a connection Chicago, this book is a great opportunity to learn about the underbelly of American life in the early 1900's.
• 
  Pamela W

  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 I would definitely check out the Everleigh Club while visiting because it sounded like a more upscale house of ill repute, and the pictures of the Victorian interior were so over the top it would give me pause to gamble on syphilis or worse. Definitely worth reading if you are into hookers (and who isn't?), Chicago, or histories with somewhat fictionalized accounts to juice things up for your reading pleasure.
• 
  Mark Hartzer

  A nice slice of Chicago history. For example, I was unaware there really was a person named "Susie Poontang". Lots of other interesting tidbits. Not crazy about some of the imagined dialogue, but a fun read nonetheless.
• 
  Jessi

  The captivating story of sisters Ada and Minna Everleigh and their world-famous Everleigh Club, the classiest brothel in Chicago at the turn of the century. Abbott clearly did her homework and does a super job of fleshing out the main characters against the background of the Victorian socio-political climate. As we already know, the crazy preachers won the political game in the end. They managed to blow up a destructive storm of tall tales on "white slavery" to enrage the terrified conservative Victorian public - describing scores of poor helpless women who got trapped into lives of sin and vice against their will.
  Actually, the Everleigh sisters were independent, intelligent entreprenuers - pioneers whose club deserved the international acclaim and prestige. They set the standards high for everyone involved in the game. The privacy of high profile clients was respected and the girls were treated very well by the clients and their employers. The "Everleigh Butterflies" were all given a good education, access to medical care, and got paid extremely well. Not to mention the fact that they lived in a cozy mansion surrounded by priceless art, perfume-spurting fountains, champagne and five star gourmet meals every night for dinner. Uh...sign me up? ha.
  
  
• 
  Kimba Tichenor

  Karen Abbott offers a popular history of perhaps the most famous "sporting house" in Chicago -- The Everleigh Club. It is a fun read; however the lack of footnotes makes it of limited value for academics (The book does include a bibliography at the end). Some readers may also be put off by the sensationalist approach of the author, which hardly seemed necessary given the topic. Still it covers a topic that most history books leave uncovered in an entertaining manner.
• 
  Susan (the other Susan)

  Read Balzac with Suzy Poon Tang as you tour the best and worst of 19th century Chicago brothels, from a safe distance. Entertaining.
• 
  M.L. Rudolph

  2007. Who couldn't be drawn to a lurid title above a come hither photo of a madam reclining on a lounge chair in black lace nighty and high heels? In early Chicago no less.
  
  Yes, the most famous bordello in the country operated for about twelve years prior to WWI on the Levee, a district in The First Ward on South Dearborn Street. Run by the Everleigh (dba) sisters, The Everleigh Club famously treated its ladies and its clients like stars, unlike the other clubs which were mere clip joints with rampant beatings, thefts, and drug-taking.
  
  Chicago's best and brightest and most-moneyed could count on the sisters to keep mum, and the sisters could count on Chicago politicians for protection as long as the money kept flowing along this chain. Everyone made out, and more, until the "White Slavery" movement developed enough support both in Springfield and in Washington. First though the sisters made a name and a fortune. Even Kaiser Wilhelm's brother took his entourage to The Everleigh for an evening and launched the national craze of drinking champagne from a harlot's, er a lady's, slipper.
  
  Marshall Field, Jr, met an ignominious end at The Everleigh. And many more stories beside. Ever hear of Suzy Poon Tang?
  
  It's a joy to one who loves Chicago to get a glimpse into this aspect of the past thanks to Abbott's diligent research. Thanks to the sisters' photo shoot to promote The Everleigh we get a peek into the sumptuous interior of a building razed in the thirties. And thanks to the diaries and correspendence of the sisters and their clients, plus the high profile campaign by the anti-sex, anti-white-slavery, anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-pandering brigades which all saw in the Levee district a target for their anger, Abbott had plenty of material to draw from. (Not to demean her impressive research.)
  
  Did you know that in the parlance of the day, one went out to "get Everleighed" before the expression was shortened?
  
  The campaigners didn't stamp out prostitution, smoking, or alcohol, but they did run the sisters out of town and close down the Levee. Watching closely was a guy by the name of Capone.
• 
  Sue K H

  This was an interesting bit of Chicago's history that I wasn't aware of. I started with an audio book but then thought there may be pictures in the hard copy so I got it from the library. I'm so glad I did because there were lots of them. I especially loved how the pictures were interspersed instead of having the middle glossy picture section like most non fiction books these days.
  
  The book details corruption in the levee district but it's main focus is on the luxurious Everleigh Club. It was owned by the Everleigh sisters who changed their name to the double entendre pronounced "Ever Lay". Their club was probably the least corrupt thing in the district since they treated their prostitutes well. If prostitution were legal, their house would have been a model one. Prostitutes came to them for interviews, they were paid well, received regular doctor visits, were given luxurious accommodations, delicious food, and pimps and drugs weren't allowed. The sisters also interviewed clientele and denied access to many.
  
  Despite their own high standards for themselves, the sisters were friends with Big Jim Colosimo, an a gangster who ran an interstate white slavery ring. They also greased the hands of the first ward aldermen,Bathouse John Coughlin and Hinky Dink Kenna, who were key players in the notoriously corrupt Chicago Democrat machine.
  
  Even when political tides turned, the house became hard to shut down because of it's popularity among respectable people, Karen Abbott details everything from how the club started and eventually closed and what became of the sisters and the politicians. It's a great read, especially for people familiar with the area. The Everleigh Club building was replaced with what are now the Hilliard Tower Apartments which had originally been one of the better Chicago Housing Authority projects.
• 
  Kate

  Abbott describes the rise and fall of an incredibly luxe 'house of ill repute' in Chicago between 1900 and 1912 or so. Called the Everleigh Club, it was run by a pair of fabulist sisters who apparently believed in treating everyone well and in sumptuous decoration. They were shut down after reformers put pressure on the government to clean up Chicago's red light district, so they changed their names a few more times and retired with their millions to New York.
  
  Fun fact: Apparently the phrase 'get laid' comes from this club, as men used to say "I'm getting Everleighed tonight." And you just can't trust the Internet sometimes.
  
  https://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...
  
  I read this at the same time as the Most Dangerous Book, about the writing and censorship of Ulysses. At first, they seemed to clash -- everybody turns a blind eye to actual prostitution, but you'll go to jail for publishing fiction that does more than hint about sex? But as the Everleigh story marched on, it became clear that moralist reformatory zeal was ramping up around the time Joyce finally finished his book. I'm surprised none of the real life law enforcement 'characters' overlapped.
  
  Still, my overall impression of the combination is this: we were very touchy about illicit ideas or actions immortalized in fixed media. Generally less touchy about illicit activities enshrined in certain quarters of our cities. Is it still this way?
• 
  Rory

  I waited forever for this book on my library's hold list, but it's really just not that great. The author is obviously following the "Devil in the White City" structure of building up two separate-but-entwined stories: of "good" creation and "evil" destruction.
  
  But her story isn't as powerful or frightening, nor does the reader get as wide or fascinating a history of Chicago in the meanwhile.
  
  And I'm in the middle of the book and there's been no graphic sex tales! Dude, this is about a famous brothel...I want to hear dirty stories.
• 
  Allyson

  I had to read this for my bookgroup, so it wasn't my choice. I got about 150 pages in and 'took a break'. The book is due back to the library on Thursday and I really doubt I'll be back to it before then. BORING. You would think a book about whore houses would be an interesting read! Snoozefest 2008.
• 
  Corbin Dodge

  I picked up this book after wandering around the bookstore for an hour looking for the perfect non-fiction read and I sure did pick up the right one! I think what makes this book interesting (and adds to the historic legitimacy) is that Abbott is able to connect the story to famous characters in history. Certainly, we can all believe that Jack Johnson visited the Everleigh Club, but did you know the mysterious connection to Marshall Field Jr, the heir to that now-nonexistent department store, Marshall Fields? We can connect any dirty business in Chicago during the early 1900's to Al Capone, but what about John D. Rockefeller?
  
  I think one of the most fascinating aspects of this historical account is that it challenges our vision of the 20th century as a time of morality; instead we're faced with a different situation--one where individuals are free to develop their Jekyl and Hyde personas under the shroud of anonymity due the a large-scale population boom.
  
  Although this is a non-fiction account, the book reads much like a novel. Scenes are descriptive to the point where they are almost begging for speculation as to where the actual account originated. Nevertheless, it keeps the pages turning and makes for an excellent alternative to the dry fact-spitting history books that litter most libraries.
  
  I'd be a fool not to comment on the author's research. Clearly, to write a historical non-fiction as descriptive as this one, any author would have to be fully versed in the chronology of events relating to their subject (and in this case, who wouldn't be interested in the relationships between madams, ministers, and playboys!) Abbott most certainly doesn't disappoint.
  
  The last note I'd like to make about this book is regarding the snapshots of history that Abbott is so clear to point out. The "invasion of Harlots" that is described toward the end of the book was definately the cherry on top for me. Imagine! 2,000 harlots walking down Michigan Avenue! One can dream to see such an amzing display in their lifetime! Seriously though, it was a profound statement about the separation of districts--either they are segregated to their own area, or they are made 'public.'
  
  I've personally always believed that if tidbits of history like this were taught in history class, that, KIDS WOULD ACTUALLY THINK HISTORY IS COOL! Sure, all those constitutions and bills are important, but there is a lot more to history than documents written by old white men. Whoodathunk?
  
• 
  Steven Peterson

  Who might imagine that a book about Chicago's bordellos at the turn of the century (late 1890s and early 1900s) could be so fascinating! This book, in the first instance, is an interesting portrayal of how two madams, Minna and Ada "Everleigh" (their last name made up for the occasion) ran a bordello that was much higher class than the other sordid businesses surrounding them in the "Levee," a section of the First Ward in Chicago.
  
  It is also a story of the politics, economics, and culture of Chicago at century's turn. The Chicago machine was humming along nicely, with the politics of favoritism and the politics of corruption working together. In the First Ward, two political leaders, Hinky Dink Kenna and John Coughlin were the powers that be. And key players for making sure that bordellos operated without crass interference from the police!
  
  These houses of ill repute often hosted major figures in Chicago. Marshall Fields' son died after an incident in the Levee. People like Theodore Dreiser haunted the district.
  
  And the Everleigh Club attracted many of the "higher order" guests to the district. The "girls" who worked there were treated well (in comparison to other harlots in the district), were taught to speak about literature, dressed exquisitely, were regularly inspected by doctors to make sure that they were in good shape physically, and so on.
  
  This book is a story of the Levee's operation, the Everleigh Sisters efforts to run a class bordello, the efforts by honest judicial officials and reformers to shut down the bordellos, and the intricate web among players--from Congressman Mann to the Mayor of Chicago to the Police to. . . . This web is well described by author Karen Abbott.
  
  This is an historical effort that reads like a novel. And the Sisters had, in many senses, the last laugh. They left their business behind when it became reasonably clear that the end of the Levee as then known was coming to an end. They took their fortune and spent the remainder of their lives in New York--after a lengthy round-the-world trip.
  
  A fascinating glimpse of Chicago's history.
  
• 
  Mitch

  I thought "Sin in the Second City" was a awesome chunk of American history. Chicago is one of my favourite cities to visit and I find that Chicago is just overflowing with interesting tidbits of history. People say this book is similar to the style of "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, but I must say I found "Sin in the Second City" MUCH MUCH MUCH more enthralling and interesting.
  
  I can honestly say I have never read a book about brothels and prostitues but I'm glad I did! This book discusses the Levee district in Chicago where over a thousand brothels existed at the turn of the Century. The most well-known and high-class of these brothels were owned by Minna and Aida Everleigh. Class, glamour, gourmet food, and only the best wine graced every room; and the girls were the cleanest, honest, and most beautiful ladies that Chicago had to offer. But soon religious fantatics decide to strike down upon the district, and the Everleigh Club seems to be the number one target!
  
  It was fascinating reading about the relationship between the govenment and the Levee, about the shocking death of Marshall Field Jr., the beginnings of the FBI, and the religious fantatics tactics. I also LOVED the details about the Everleigh sisters, their hilarious and bitter rivalry with enemy Madam Vic Shaw, and White Slavery in general.
  
  I had never heard of White Slavery before this book, and I didn't know until now how grand a scale this issue was. Sadly young girls prostituting themselves still exists, and although it has evolved white slavery is still a hidden but present issue. (Although it doesn't just always involve whites, young girls of all races are unfortunatly being forced into lives of prostitution all over the world).
  
  Overall this book was a swell read, and it was fun to get transported back into this wild past. There were only a few parts that were slow or dull to me, but most of the book was page turner after page turner!
• 
  Siria

  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.
• 
  Bill

  This was an interesting read, full of insight into the life of working girls in the early 1900s. Parallels are easy to draw between then and today, both culturally and morally, and Chicago is what it is - vibrant, bustling and corrupt.
  This book is perhaps more compelling to those with a fancy for history and American politics. It's also interesting to note how the Everleigh club, which recruited instead of enslaving, paid girls a comfortable wage for the day, got them regular medical check-ups and enforced a strict code of conduct for the protection of both the girls and the customers, became the target of "reformers" instead of the hundreds of other "sporting clubs" in Chicago at that time, which often literally bought and sold women.
  Also the emphasis on the term "White Slavery" creeped me out. It was the term used at the time, but the not-too-subtle implication is that it is somehow more horrible than plain, old, run-of-the-mill slavery, to which millions of African Americans had been subject.
  
  Much food for thought in this book; well worth a read.
• 
  Tina Thompson

  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 made you see their point. I kind of wanted to side with them. Ms Abbott obviously did a lot of research on this book. I would have liked to know more about a few of the other madams back then as a little background was given on a few other madams, but the focus was mainly on the Everleigh sisters. And a few more facts about the "rich playboys" would have been nice. Overall, though, it was a cool read to show how even in the polite society there were still rules being broken without cause for alarm.
• 
  bibliogrrl

  If you like books about Chicago, especially if you liked Devil in the White City, you will LOVE THIS BOOK.
  
  I'm a sucker for books about my hometown, but this book has the added spice of being about the cities premier cathouse at the turn of the century. How can you not love that?
  
  I'm basically going to force every person I know to read this book when it comes out this summer. It's a great read... non-fiction that reads like the best potboiler novel you could imagine.