Helpful Score: 5
3.0 out of 5 stars - Started out strong
I've let my thoughts on this simmer overnight because I ended up sort of disappointed in this novel though I was quiet enthralled at the beginning. A young girl from the Chrystie street tenements is sold into service by her Gypsy mother and eventually is turned out onto the mean streets of Lower Manhattan in 1871 and left to fend for herself. Moth, named by a father who abandoned his family, finds short term sanctuary of sorts in an "Infant School" where Miss Everett sells young virgins to wealthy gentlemen. During this period of indoctrination into the brothel life, Moth meets a woman physician who hopes to rescue Moth and others like her from the lifestyle she has chosen. There's a small bit about the "virgin cure" and a plot point involving that myth, not much else of the book has to do with that.
I really liked the middle part of the story and the historical asides, but then it became predictable and not very satisfying. Of course the poor slum girl has an unnatural beauty and of course ...well, does she manage to overcome all the obstacles of her place of birth and lack of social status to rise above it all and finally gain some freedom from illness and poverty on Chrystie Street??
I really like historical fiction and I did like the inclusion of period information although it seemed a bit oddly placed on the pages at times. I could have done without some of the beginning chapter quotes, especially the song lyrics. I'd recommend it if you're a reader interested in the health and welfare of women and children during the 1870s.
I've let my thoughts on this simmer overnight because I ended up sort of disappointed in this novel though I was quiet enthralled at the beginning. A young girl from the Chrystie street tenements is sold into service by her Gypsy mother and eventually is turned out onto the mean streets of Lower Manhattan in 1871 and left to fend for herself. Moth, named by a father who abandoned his family, finds short term sanctuary of sorts in an "Infant School" where Miss Everett sells young virgins to wealthy gentlemen. During this period of indoctrination into the brothel life, Moth meets a woman physician who hopes to rescue Moth and others like her from the lifestyle she has chosen. There's a small bit about the "virgin cure" and a plot point involving that myth, not much else of the book has to do with that.
I really liked the middle part of the story and the historical asides, but then it became predictable and not very satisfying. Of course the poor slum girl has an unnatural beauty and of course ...well, does she manage to overcome all the obstacles of her place of birth and lack of social status to rise above it all and finally gain some freedom from illness and poverty on Chrystie Street??
I really like historical fiction and I did like the inclusion of period information although it seemed a bit oddly placed on the pages at times. I could have done without some of the beginning chapter quotes, especially the song lyrics. I'd recommend it if you're a reader interested in the health and welfare of women and children during the 1870s.
The story of determination and resolve. Moth pulls herself up from the lowest level of existance with the help of a mentor. Great read.
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Centering around a young girl who under horrible circumstances is abandoned and must find her own way in New York City at the age of 12. As there were only a few options for girls and as I learned some horrible ways for girls to keep a roof over their heads, I was astonished at the details of these girls lives that lived through these years in New York City. I am certain that this wasn't just happening at this moment in time or just in this town, so I think this book has a sense of relevancy even at this time.
Centering around a young girl who under horrible circumstances is abandoned and must find her own way in New York City at the age of 12. As there were only a few options for girls and as I learned some horrible ways for girls to keep a roof over their heads, I was astonished at the details of these girls lives that lived through these years in New York City. I am certain that this wasn't just happening at this moment in time or just in this town, so I think this book has a sense of relevancy even at this time.
Even the title is disturbing: "The Virgin Cure" refers to the belief that deflowering a virgin could cure a man's disease, which, of course, in actuality simply passed on his affliction, usually a sexually transmitted one, to his next victim, a young girl who was often sold into the sex trade. This belief is still found, and the practice still goes on, in many places in the world, so it's sadly far from fiction.
The story surrounds a one of the characters in the author's later novel, but it explains her origins to a much greater degree. I admit, I liked the other one more, as I think there was a much more elaborate and engaging story line. This is primarily focused on the interpersonal relationships between the tragic characters at a rather upscale brothel, where the madam takes in young girls, as young as twelve, in the case of the protagonist, and grooms them to become high-dollar prostitutes. They're plucked off the streets by the girls themselves, and, if they make the grade, they're taken in to be "raised" in the company of others, in an almost-perversion of an "orphanage."
The novel is fairly descriptive of the stereotypical figures one would find in a major city in the late nineteenth century: from the slums of the ghettos, to exploitative slum lords and rent collectors, to the diverse and exotic group of inhabitants, each one with a seemingly tragic collections of reasons why they were unable to escape their grim fates and bleak surroundings, which include addiction, alcoholism, rampant abuse, abandonment and disability, to the wealthy upper crust, including lecherous husbands looking for a cheap thrill to abusive ladies who engage in an endless cycle of see-and-be-seen parade, to the doctor who attempts to help the down-on-their-luck "almost-whores" and tries to justify the reasons why she keeps going back.
I won't provide too many spoilers, but I will say that this was an at-times engaging, but often depressing portrait of the city; the later novel The Witches of New York, where the main character also features, was to me more enjoyable, although having this background was useful. It left several threads untied, however, making me wonder if there are future endeavors in the making!
The story surrounds a one of the characters in the author's later novel, but it explains her origins to a much greater degree. I admit, I liked the other one more, as I think there was a much more elaborate and engaging story line. This is primarily focused on the interpersonal relationships between the tragic characters at a rather upscale brothel, where the madam takes in young girls, as young as twelve, in the case of the protagonist, and grooms them to become high-dollar prostitutes. They're plucked off the streets by the girls themselves, and, if they make the grade, they're taken in to be "raised" in the company of others, in an almost-perversion of an "orphanage."
The novel is fairly descriptive of the stereotypical figures one would find in a major city in the late nineteenth century: from the slums of the ghettos, to exploitative slum lords and rent collectors, to the diverse and exotic group of inhabitants, each one with a seemingly tragic collections of reasons why they were unable to escape their grim fates and bleak surroundings, which include addiction, alcoholism, rampant abuse, abandonment and disability, to the wealthy upper crust, including lecherous husbands looking for a cheap thrill to abusive ladies who engage in an endless cycle of see-and-be-seen parade, to the doctor who attempts to help the down-on-their-luck "almost-whores" and tries to justify the reasons why she keeps going back.
I won't provide too many spoilers, but I will say that this was an at-times engaging, but often depressing portrait of the city; the later novel The Witches of New York, where the main character also features, was to me more enjoyable, although having this background was useful. It left several threads untied, however, making me wonder if there are future endeavors in the making!
