Helpful Score: 5
This book tells the story of May Duignan, AKA Chicago May. In the early 1900's, May runs away from her rural home in Ireland to go to America. When she gets there, she turns to a life of crime and prostitution and she gradually becomes a notorious, well-known figure in Chicago. She was so well-known that she was dubbed âThe Queen of the Underworldâ in the tabloids of the time. She even wrote a book of her own experiences that survives to this day. How I'd love to have a chance to read it!
This book also gives a candid view of the very poor that lived in squalid tenements, worked in nasty brothels, and drank in seedy taverns. You can almost see the sights and smell the stink. Excellent book!
This book also gives a candid view of the very poor that lived in squalid tenements, worked in nasty brothels, and drank in seedy taverns. You can almost see the sights and smell the stink. Excellent book!
Helpful Score: 2
I did not enjoy the "ruminative" style of this biography. The character's life is exciting enough for real engagement, but the author intentionally disrupts this.
Biography written in a unique way. Chicago May was a crook known on an international scale at the turn of the century.
A well-written, insightful book, retelling the story of Chicago May, "The Queen of the Underworld." Authentically recounts the Irish immigrant's experience surviving on the streets of the new world.
