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

Karen Abbot’s nonfiction book Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul is the story of the Everleigh Club, an infamous brothel that became a focal point for a reformation craze that swept the country in the early years of the 20th century. Sisters Minna and Ada Everleigh welcomed everyone from the Prince of Prussia to champion boxer Jack Johnson into their lavishly decorated mansion in Chicago’s notorious Levee district, and entertained them with their stunningly beautiful “butterflies”—a group of prostitutes who were fed gourmet food, examined by honest physicians, and tutored in French literature. Not everyone appreciated the Everleigh sisters’ attempts to lend a little dignity to the world’s oldest profession, however: rival madams, corrupt politicians, and Progressive Era reformers all did their best to destroy the Club... or at least get their share of its profits.

We rarely recommend historical nonfiction as beach reading, but Abbot’s book is terrific—meticulously researched and tremendously entertaining. Don’t pick it up if you’re looking for an uncomplicated, salaciously entertaining good time, however. For every cheerfully off-color anecdote*, there are two more depressing or revolting ones. (Tip: skip the bit about chronic pelvic congestion. Trust me, you don’t want to know.) Abbot’s portrayal of the Everleigh sisters is equally complex: they obviously had fabulous style and business sense (they would have made a killing in Vegas, had they only been born several decades later), but it’s tough to glamorize any profession that involved weekly doctor visits to check for syphilis.

Despite her book's nonfiction classification, Abbot has obviously taken several liberties with her source material. The story of the rise and fall of the Everleigh Club is arranged for maximum dramatic impact, and the book includes an implausible number of re-created conversations and internal monologues. Footnotes indicating Abbot’s sources would not have come amiss, but there’s no denying that her breathless pace, treasure trove of scandalous anecdotes, and novel-esque structure make Sin in the Second City incredibly easy reading.

*"Once a year, around the holidays, [a john named] Uncle Ned took over the Music Room, thrust his bare feet into buckets of ice, downed a tall glass of sarsaparilla, and ordered the girls to circle him and sing 'Jingle Bells'. Shaking a tambourine, Uncle Ned shouted again and again, 'Let’s all go for an old-fashioned sleigh ride... whee!'"
-Sin in the Second City, Page 161