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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Karen Abbott’s big, bold “Sin”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you haven’t read “Sin in the Second City,” by Atlanta author Karen Abbott, you’re missing a delicious cocktail of historical detail and salaciousness.
Abbott’s “Sin” is about what was, at the time, the most famous whorehouse in the world — the Everleigh Club in Chicago, circa 1900. It was run by two colorful, iron-willed sisters, Minna and Ada Everleigh, and catered only to the richest clients by offering them the best prostitutes (referred to as “butterflies”) in the plushest surroundings.
(Ever hear of a gentleman drinking champagne from a lady’s shoe as a sign of devotion? The Everleigh is where that started, according to Abbott’s book.)
If the whole topic bothers you, well, maybe you ought to skip Abbott’s appearance at 1:15 p.m. Sunday at the Decatur Book Festival. There’s a schedule on the festival’s homepage.
While she doesn’t actually endorse the Everleighs, Abbott appears to sympathize with them in the book, more than the various forces of church and state that eventually shut the club down.
Abbott is not afraid of a little self-promotion, either. The author’s photo on the dust jacket does not exactly portray her as dowdy. Check it out yourself on the book’s website. In AJC staff writer Kirsten Tagami’s profile of Abbott that ran Sunday, Kirsten wrote:
“There’s definitely something in the self-described one-time “troublemaking” Catholic schoolgirl that is attracted to naughtiness. At her New York book party … Abbott was described as “smooching” with her female editor and grabbing a stripper’s breasts for the camera.”
Of course, no such shenanigans will be going on at the Decatur Book Festival.
Enough titillation. “Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul,” is solid history, very much in the territory of Erik Larsen’s “Devil in the White City,” occasionally covering adjacent patches of ground as that best-seller. Abbott and “Sin” just got a huge shout-out in Entertainment Weekly, where Sara Gruen, author of “Water for Elephants,” did a guest critic gig and called Abbott’s writing “exquisite” and her reporting “first-rate.”
Karen Abbott is just one of many reasons to hit the Decatur Book Fest this weekend. Have you read “Sin in the Second City” yet? What did you think?
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