My mother wasn't even completely in the front door this morning when she pegged me with her gaze. She held a book up triumphantly in my direction. "You have to read this book," she stated by way of greeting.
"What is it?" I asked, leery.
My mother is as voracious a reader as I am. But, we read completely different things. She wouldn't even entertain the notion of picking up Dante... I'm currently meandering through the Divine Comedy for the third time. I adore history... she wants her books current. I hate sex on page three, she has more books that begin with a sex scene than my household has movies with a sex scene. Every once in a while she picks a great book, but more often it's the not so great (to me) books that she praises highly. I had reason to be leery.
"It's a book about the whorehouses in Nevada," she answered, flipping the book over and pointing at the summary before sitting it on the table in front of me.
I sat there looking at it for a moment, trying to digest what she'd said. The whorehouses? Oh... the brothels maybe? Interesting from an academic standpoint... but I didn't want to read sex, made up or otherwise.
"It's non-fiction."
My eyes popped open wide. Non-fiction. My mom recommends non fiction? Wait. My mom reads non fiction? Holy crap. How'd I miss that? "It's non fiction?" I had to ask... I couldn't have heard her correctly the first time.
Non-fiction, she confirms. Well. Hmm. Okay. This I had to read, if for no other reason than to prove to myself that she misinterpreted and it couldn't possibly be non-fiction.
I picked the book up as soon as she left and began reading. She was right. It was non-fiction. It was about the whorehouses (from henceforth called brothels). And it was an engrossing read.
The book came about, recalls author Alexa Albert in the novel, out of her own fascination and unanswered questions about prostitution and its contribution to the sexually transmitted disease epidemic. In the summer of 1988 she volunteered at Streetwork, a nonprofit that provided counseling, meals and laundry services to homeless teens in New York City who had turned to prostitution.
"My experience at Streetwork thus informed many of my initial assumptions about Nevada's brothel prostitution," she writes. "I couldn't believe a state in America would choose to legalize this atrocity" (p. 35).
Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women is an in-depth look at legal prostitution in Nevada; its history, the brothel business, the prostitute licensing process, and, perhaps most fascinating, the girls and Albert's own curiosity-driven journey through the world of legal prostitution.
Having researched legal prostitution and brothels several times over the years, I thought I knew a bit. I'd never, however, heard tell of the existence of pimps in the world of legal prostitution. Had never really considered the mechanics of such a thing or the role racism plays in the business. Reading the book today was, to say the least, quite an experience.
The questions that many of us have asked about why one would turn to such a profession are answered, often by the girls themselves and in ways completely unexpected. Relationships outside of the business are explored as are the coping mechanisms of the girls themselves and the thoughts of those who frequent the brothels.
But more importantly than answered questions, Brothel forces one to think outside the moral box we so often surround ourselves with when it comes to prostitution and examine the world of legal prostitution through the eyes of those who experience it firsthand and those, like Albert, who are cautiously welcomed into that surreal gated world.
Being the often emotional person I am, I cried as she recounted the tale of a gentlemen with AIDS who visited solely for companionship with someone who didn't treat him like a leper, the stories of the women who turned to prostitute at the urging of their husbands and the unwavering and often naive faith in the boyfriends who serve more as pimps than companions.
It is, to say the least, a deeply interesting and affecting novel. And by all means, one that everyone, regardless of which side of the prostitution debate he or she resides on, should read.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Cheers,
Fallon
Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women
by Alexa Albert
Published by Random House
Paperback, 272 pages, $10.17 new at Amazon.com
ISBN: 9780449006580
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Free books need new home.
~Fallon~
"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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Thanks for the hint! I feel like a complete idiot because I have never noticed it before!