What Am I Reading..

 "The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld"  by Christine Witz.

Here is the Summary from Google Books:

In 1916, at age fifteen, Norma Wallace arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars until she was arrested at last in 1962. Shortly before she died in 1974, she tape—recorded her memories-the scandalous stories of a powerful woman who had the city's politicians in her pocket and whose lovers included the twenty-five-year-old boy next door, whom she married when she was sixty-four. Combining those tapes with original research, Christine Wiltz chronicles not just Norma's rise and fall but also the social history of New Orleans, thick with the vice and corruption that flourished there—and, like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil andPhilistines at the Hedgerow, resurrects a vanished secret world.

What I thought:

And I thought I had it thought, when Norma Wallace was in her prime  she had practically every police man either in her pocket or set on bringing her down. Raids at her place many times a week, but after reading this book I think Norma was born for her job. She really loved her job and everything it included, the good and the bad. And no matter how many times she pledged to go "straight" she always come back to New Orleans. She had a string of lovers including a 15 year old boy she seduced and after turning 30 she was obsessed with being portrayed as a sexual figure.

When I read books like this I realized that no matter how much time passes by things really never change, dealing with loser guys and kicking out pimps  (Yes there were pimps in the early 20th century!). And it really proved that no matter how hard police pound at this problem they think is prostitution, it will never ever disappear.  Norma Wallace was a great character and I truly sympathized with her stories and some where hilarious!!

 

Good Book.