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5/30/2008 [ interview ]
Interview with Karen Abbott
by David Rodriguez
Listen to Karen Abbott read from Sin and the Second City here.
Q: The Everleigh sisters were such resourceful and masterful liars. How did you conduct research for this book? Letters? Interviews? Are there are any relatives of the Everleighs left?
I worked on Sin for three years, writing and researching included. My background is in journalism so I’m used to talking to live people, listening to them, figuring out what they’re saying in their silences. This was an entirely different kind of research to me; it was like learning a foreign language. But I really loved digging through the musty old archives in Chicago’s libraries. Dead people don’t always say what you want them to, but if you learn how to read what’s there—and read into what’s not—you can really bring them back to life, or at least try to. It’s part of what I love about nonfiction, about piecing together a million little facts to create a larger truth, and hopefully an entertaining story. If I had written a novel and included a character like Vic Shaw, my editor would have rightfully told me to tone her down or cut some of her antics. I mean, I could not have made her up. Same thing with Everleigh Club clients like the Gold Coin Kid—who knew people were so kinky back then?
I did get to talk to a few people who had a direct connection to the sisters, including their great niece. It took months and months of sending out letters to addresses and having many of them returned. But finally, her son called me, and said a relative had forwarded my letter. The Everleighs’ great niece was 80 years old when I spoke with her, and feisty. It was 10 in the morning, and she was eating caviar—she made a point of mentioning that to me, which I thought was very Everleigh-like. She also was very adamant about calling the sisters “ladies”—she was proud of them, and proud to be related to them.
Q: What was your initial inspiration for writing this book?
It’s actually a very personal story. My great-grandmother and her sister immigrated to the United States from Slovenia in 1905. One weekend, the sister took a trip to Chicago and was never heard from again. I was always intrigued and haunted by this bit of family lore, and when I began researching Chicago, and learned all about the “disappearing girls” around the turn of the century, those tales really captured my imagination. Chicago was a fascinating city at the time but also very dangerous. There were entire guidebooks that warned visitors about which streets and establishments to avoid. They had these vivid, melodramatic titles: “Chicago and Its Cesspools of Infamy,” “The White Slave Hell: With Christ at Midnight in the Slums of Chicago,” etc. It was easy, especially during my research trips to the city, to imagine my relative falling victim to some nefarious force. Of course I also imagine that she might have become a “sporting girl,” so to speak. And I would hope that she was Everleigh Club material!
Q: There seem to be a lot of parallels between the Everleigh sisters, the kind of “total experience” they give, and Geishas. Could you talk about some of the things the Everleigh sisters provided that, maybe our readers, if they were so inclined, couldn’t get at just any brothel?
The Everleigh Club was the whole experience: it was a badge of honor to be admitted, to be a regular there. That couldn't be said for any other brothel at the time, or any brothel today, for that matter. I think the Everleigh sisters had fabulous imaginations and a great sense of humor. Who else would direct prostitutes to reenact the murder of Dionysus's son?
Q: With Eliot Spitzer and David Vitter’s recent scandals hitting the media, do you feel that there are any differences between society’s fascination/condemnation of prostitution from then to now? Or of how media influences the country’s view of prostitution?
I really think the more things change, the more they stay the same. One of the major themes of Sin in the Second City is the cyclical nature of religious fundamentalism—which I think is especially resonant today. Sin also explores reformers' hypocrisy; that's what really bothered me about the Spitzer case. I personally don't care if he's patronizing prostitutes, but he shouldn't then build a career by waging a very public battle against prostitution rings.
Q: You’ve told so many great stories about the club, including Prussian Prince Henry’s visit, which marks the origin of drinking champagne out of a slipper, and also of the interesting customers like Uncle Ned, who’d stick his feet in buckets of ice and have the girls sing “Jingle Bells” to him. What was your favorite story that you uncovered?
I LOVE that Suzy Poon Tang's suitor was so impressed with his talents that he married her! The rest of that story, which I didn't include in the book, was that Suzy Poon Tang went on to have a hot and scandalous affair with the wife of her new husband's business partner.
Q: What is your writing process like? Do you listen to music while you write? Do you wear funny hats? Do you write by hand?
When I was writing Sin, I listened to ragtime every morning. Now I'm writing about Gypsy Rose Lee and New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, so I'm listening to music from that time period: Gene Austin, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman. When it comes time to write, though, I need perfect quiet—and some earplugs. My two African Grey parrots, Poe and Dexter (after the writers Edgar Allan and Pete) keep me company.
Q: You have an Amazon.com blog. How do you feel about lit blogs and their increasing prevalence? As an author, do you feel it gives you an advantage in connecting with readers, perhaps more so than book tours?
I don't really blog—I just post reviews or tour dates. But I'm thinking of starting a quasi-blog for my new book. Gypsy is getting such great reviews on Broadway, and every theater in the country has put on a production of Gypsy at one time or another, and I think (hope) some people would be interested in learning more about her life as I do my research. Everything people know about Gypsy comes from her memoir or the play, and neither scratch the surface of revealing who she really was.
To change things up, the following can be answered in a word, a phrase, or a sentence:
1) Name a writer who is currently making you jealous.
I understand jealousy—this is such a competitive industry to break into, and I spent a long time failing before I had any success. But I really hate what one of my novelist friends calls "slotty thinking"—the idea that there is one slot out there that is morally and rightfully yours, and every time you see another writer succeed, that was possibly YOUR slot. Slotty thinking makes you retreat into a really dark and hateful place. It consumes you whole. I am a frightfully competitive person, but I do everything in my power not to fall into this trap. I just try to write the best books I can write, and get better at it each time. If you view it as a competition with yourself, you can keep your edge without begrudging others' success.
2) What kind of child were you?
I was a truculent and moody child, always hiding ferally behind my mother's leg. Then, when I hit 14, I blossomed into a hellion.
3) What is your relationship with rejection like?
I don't have a good relationship with rejection. We've considered going into therapy together to work on things, but quite frankly I didn't like rejection enough in the first place to bother.
4) What book did you suffer for the most, and why?
I don't believe one should suffer while reading or writing. If I were that miserable, I would be doing something else.
5) What was the greatest surprise for you in your most recent writing?
My research into Gypsy Rose Lee's life has been one surprise after another. Her character is so much more complex than her memoir suggests. And Mama Rose, in the movie and play, is portrayed as this sort of plucky, quirky woman who was a bit eccentric at times. She was much, much darker and scarier in real life.
6) What writerly habit would you most like to break?
Not writing, which leads me to surf the internet for things I covet but can't afford.
And lastly (for the sake of having a random question): What did you have for lunch today?
Protein bar.
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Copyright © 2008 The Southeast Review
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