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Jan 17, 2013jmikesmith rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The Virgin Cure is a historical novel set in the lower East side of late 19th-century New York City. It's narrated by Ada "Moth" Fenwick, an 11- or 12-year-old girl trying to survive after her mother sells her to be a rich woman's personal servant. Moth and her family come from the ranks of the unemployed, and the novel does an excellent job of portraying life in a city that just didn't have the resources or the interest to look after its poorest citizens. After some tough times, including resorting to petty thievery, Moth is taken in by a Madam who runs a brothel that specializes in virgins. The book's title comes from the belief among many men with a variety of sexually-transmitted diseases that having sex with a virgin will cure them. The Madam finds and trains young girls, typically orphans and run-aways, in the 19th-century art of seduction, so they can be sold to the highest bidder. If the girl is lucky, she'll become a kept woman, with her own hotel suite and plenty of clothes and food and nights at the theatre with her lover (almost always a wealthy married man). Moth's voice is consistent throughout the story and matter-of-fact. She takes New York as it is, neither criticizing the lack of support nor mythologizing the poor as noble sufferers. The story is rather bleak, but lightened by a large cast of characters doing their best to make a living amid the squalor and disease. I found the ending was a bit too neat and tidy, but otherwise it's a well-written story that showed me a time and place that I knew little about.