Fascinating book about a woman who lived a criminal life but at the beginning lived it on her terms. It was only later in life when she seemed to let others take control that she lost herself. May was born in Ireland but ran away in 1890. The author has tried to put May's life in some historical frame according to the time period. The book contains some black and white photos. The book was an easy read.

Saucy

Fascinating history of a bad girl at a time when there was a lot of corruption and later when there wasn't. There isn't much written about these kinds of people because they're not very nice and make a lot of trouble. Yet, I think her story is worth telling and the author tells it well.

The author interjects too much of herself, especially toward the end, but over all this is a sublime and affecting story of one Irish immigrant's lifelong journey through the underworld.

I first heard of Irish writer Nuala O'Faolain when I picked up one of her books in the WH Smith at Heathrow as I ran to catch a flight back to the States. Sometimes we are drawn to certain authors in mysterious ways, as if the moments were meant to be. Thereafter, I was led to her two memoirs, breathtaking in their candor about moving through stages of life as a young Irish girl, a writer, and mature woman coming to terms with her past.

Knowing this writer's work, I didn't expect "The Story of Chicago May" to be a traditional biography, and it most certainly was not. May Duignan, born in post-famine Ireland, nicked her family's savings and ran away to America. There, she achieved legendary status as "Chicago May," working as a thief, outlaw, showgirl and prostitute.

What I find remarkable is how the writer weaves in her own process of discovery and personal experience in researching and writing the book. This approach won't work for all readers. Some prefer the conventional biography, but others will find this book refreshing. No matter how a writer strives for objectivity, biography writing will never truly elude the subjectivity of the writer's own experience. O'Faolain did it her way, though she painstakingly researched her elusive subject. She literally traced the steps of May through city after city on two different continents.

Years of May's life were spent in prisons on both sides of the Atlantic, but she managed to survive a life on the edge. Exhausted and sick at heart, she later met police reformer August Vollmer, who convinced her to write her autobiography as a way toward the light. O'Faolain refuses to sugarcoat the "Queen of Crook's" struggle to make ends meet, her experiences in and out of prison, or her poor choices in men, several notorious crooks in their own right.

"Hope kept me up," May wrote in her last, desperate note to Vollner before her death as "a tired old prostitute" in an unmarked grave in Philadelphia. But the book is not about a character who tried to save her own soul, whatever that may be interpreted to be. It ends with just as many questions about the seeming lack of meaning in May's life, yet assures us that even such a life as hers is worth examining: "Out there, people are waiting in the dark. Shine the beam of attention out there. The dark recoils."

Non sono molto pratico di biografie, anzi a dirla tutta questa �� la prima che mi ricordi di aver letto, per cui le caratteristiche del genere non mi sono molto familiari.
La persona attorno alla quale ruota tutta la storia �� Chicago May, un'esule Irlandese fuggita in America alla fine del 1800 in cerca di riscatto, e poi dedicatasi al crimine e alla prostituzione.
La storia in se non �� particolarmente avvincente (pi�� volte mi sono sorpreso a leggere "sorvolando" sulle righe), ma alcune caratteristiche hanno reso questo libro interessante: la biografa ha il preciso intento di andare oltre alla figura "storica", e cerca di dare uno spessore psicologico al personaggio, nonostante per sua ammissione non ci siano molti riscontri che chiariscano come la protagonista deve avere vissuto gli avvenimenti, e quindi, pur essendo molto onesta nel farlo, "riempie" i vuoti con l'idea che si �� fatta di lei, pi�� che con i fatti nudi e crudi, e le storie di chi narra e di chi viene narrata si intrecciano e si sovrappongono.
La seconda caratteristica �� che attraverso la vita di May si pu�� dare un'occhiata, con un punto di vista insolito (perlomeno rispetto alla letteratura pi�� diffusa) ad alcune realt��, come l'ambiente di degrado e prostituzione delle grandi citt�� USA del 1900, ed alcuni spaccati dell'Irlanda rivoluzionaria dell'insurrezione di Pasqua.
Non il mio libro preferito in assoluto, ma una buone esperienza.

I loved learning about Chicago May. Like "Devil in the White City," this true story was told so well, it could've been a novel.

I'd give this 3 and a half stars. Chicago May was truly a fascinating person but I was uncomfortable with the style of doing history O'Faolain employs. A substantial portion of the book is based on what the author thinks happened, as opposed to what can be gleaned from the documents pertaining to May's life. She doesn't always explain why she thinks May did this or that, or felt this way or that, and I don't buy this as an valid method for drawing conclusions.

This was an "ok" read. It could of been much more interesting except instead of reading like a biography of Chicago May, it read more like an autobiography of Nuala O'Faoain. Too much speculation as well as the author being inserted into the story too often.

Here we have the notorious Chicago May, criminal mastermind, prostitute, con artist, pickpocket, et cetera, etc., &c. She left Ireland in 1890 for America, taking with her all of her family's assets and entered into a life on the edges of society. She romped around the World's Fair in Chicago. She married and divorced a lieutenant, taking much of his money with her. She ran off with lover Eddie Guerin in a Bonnie & Clyde-style spree, stealing several thousand dollars from an American Express office, for which she spent her longest stay in prison.

Chicago May's life has the makings for a great story. The problem is that the facts are incredibly minimal. Nuala O'Faolain does the best to spice up the story by making it a meta-biography. She parallels May's emigration to America with her own. But most of the book is speculation. Nearly every sentence began "I imagine May..." or "May might have..." Being a fiction person, this doesn't bother me, but this must be a nightmare for someone looking for a tightly written, fact-based biography.

Overall, this is a "meh".

A fun read. One of those finish in a night kind of books. Reads like a fiction, fast paced and interesting as stories of passion, sleaze and sex can be...

This biography was an amazing look at the life of a woman in the late 1800s to early 1900s who basically never accepted the word "no."

This is my favorite of all the newspaper headlines published about May during her lifetime:

Chicago May, Notorious International Criminal, is Nabbed for Stealing a Dog

What kind of a person was May? One who was in many ways fearless. The backstory of this headline is that she’d been having an affair with a married man who moved in with her, and brought his dog...until the guy decided to go back to his wife.

She got back at him by brazenly breaking into his house, confronting his wife, and taking his dog as if to make a statement that he didn't deserve that dog. The cherry on top is that the newspaper article said May "faced the court with a broad grin."

Well, of course she did. She'd already been to prison by then and even got away with stealing nearly $600,000 (in modern-day terms) from a Parisian American Express! She'd gotten in the habit of risking it all quite often in her life. The twists and turns her life took are legendary.

The author Nuala O'Faolain did a superb job of adding a real Irish perspective to the story and delving through tons of research to see which parts of the tale were true and which had been kept off the records.

For all the dirty details of the wild romps and feelings I had while reading this, see my SubStack post on it here:
Full Review with spoilers & secrets