When the book arrived in the mail I was both intrigued and a little hesitant. I am not in to pornographic books, overt romantic novels, or overwrought tragedies - I need not have worried, the book is excellent and I only fear that the title and the wonderful photo of the actual Mary Deubler on the cover taken by the enigmatic Bellocq may not convey what the book really offers.
Long before Nevada legalized prostitution, New Orleans had Storyville - 1898 - 1917. It was the creation of Sidney Story, a real-life crusader who thought that the way to clean up the prostitution and depravity of New Orleans was to designate an area - the District or the Tenderloin - names he preferred. The result was the elimination of indiscriminate cribs all throughout the town and the legalizing of a business.
Storyville's full impact is not covered in this historic novel, only its beginnings. Later there would be terrible deeds done within the district, but in the beginning it was actually a way for women who had very little choice in how they could earn a living to find a house and an income.
In this story the authors blend a lot of truth with enough fiction to hold it together as a story. It portrays the depth of depravity that existed and the hopeless and helpless situation that many poor women faced, the cruelty of the men and the fact that those in power, as is true today, loved to make pronouncements in the public while engaging in the very acts they said they deplored.
I found myself constantly going back to the web to research the people and places that were mentioned in the book and have a much better appreciation for the work of the authors as a result.
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