Expected a novel and got a biography that's as much about the author as the subject. A bit preachy for my taste.

Interesting parts but I had to make myself to finish it.

Interesting slice of history - author pretty biased, but still a good story

I persevered with this book because I was genuinely interested in this woman's chaotic and intriguing life. However I didn't enjoy the way in which it was told; the 'I imagine' bits interspersed with facts, newspaper clippings and then paragraphs commenting on society and the social norms ... Then the author tried to draw parallels from May's life with people out of her own, turning this biography of May's more into the author's autobiography; I didn't get it. I would've much preferred a novel told from May's perspective. I know it would be more on the fictitious side of things but who doesn't love a good 'based on a true story' book/film?

Audiobook

will read more from this author. good biography.

An unusual and personal biography as O'Faoiain draws the story of her brother, the black sheep of her family and his end together in a loose weave with the story of May...

I'd never heard of this lady before: and all women are ladies, just different types. she is a cousin of cousins of ours and I stumbled on her story by accident.

My verse on her is here: http://www.writingsinrhyme.com/index....

Most poignant was the story how her nephew never knowing of her lost his mind on learning everyone knew bar him. such is the effect of secrets in an Irish town.

I think it's better we have no secrets and don't hold each other to account for another's life as no one is their brothers keeper...

2005
Having read other books [memoirs] of O'Faolain's helps you 'get into' this book.

What it relates is the PROCESS of O'Faolain trying to write about the life of this Irishwoman who ended up in the U.S. [though she did not actually spend much time in Chicago].

Given the paucity of sources about May, born around 1875 deep in the Irish countryside to a quite poor family, O'Faolain talks a lot about how she went about her research, what was going on in her own life, what she found out about the places and times May lived in and people she met or worked with. May mostly worked as what I think is called a confidence trickster, and she ended up doing prison sentences in a variety of places in the UK and the US.

O'Faolain does not hesitate to conjecture or to give her own opinions and value judgments but this is all acknowledged. If you want a conventional 'factual' 'neutral' biography, don't read this one.

Although I will probably not read this book a second time, I was happy to read it through to the end. O'Faolain helps us put ourselves in the place of a not highly educated young woman with no family or network supporting her, putting to use her wits and her attractiveness to men to survive.

p 214:
"We can hardly feel today how original it must have been, in the days when the territory of individualism had not been well mapped, for Irish people in as humble a social position as May to reject the pieties of the tribe....she had no fatherland, no home..."

p 215:
"She's impervious to remorse and coolly astonished at the notion of turning to religion late in life....The only aspect of the Irish Catholic tradition that survived in her was a robust anticlericalism [from her grandfather]"

p 221:
"She'd have had no leverage, no hope of exercising power. She'd have been broken, at last."

O'Faolain says at the end that she came to respect May but not to love her. She notes with amazement that through all her suffering, esp. in the later years when she seems usually to have been completely alone and impoverished and also ill, May [according to her own memoirs] continued to 'enjoy living'...'Hope kept me up'.

And O'Faolain on her experience of writing her own memoirs, and how slippery the past is:
p. 297:
"I can feel the unsaid and the unsayable pressing from behind all I said, though I never consciously kept anything back."

Some readers are bothered by all O'Faolain's references to her mentally ill brother, but I found these an enrichment; her pain regarding her brother is palpable.

When the author's name is larger than the subject's in the title, beware. As dynamic Chicago May was I would have easily given this book 4 stars if it hadn't been for O’Faolin constant reminisces about her brother. Wth does he have to do with my thieving, fighting, conniving, hard drinking street walker???? I do not want personal family dynamics in my bios. They do not belong. Plus they completely blow first person perspective, especially in an audiobook. Don't' authors, just don't. If I were to remove this massive obstacle from my reading pleasure the book is very well written. O'Faolin was a thorough researcher traveling through several countries for various resources. Chicago May certainly meets my requirements of a notorious woman.

Interesting biography of the colorful criminal known as Chicago May. The author does a great job pointing out that the purpose of this biography is to give a voice to women of that period that had no voice.

Chicago May was born in Ireland and stole her parents life savings to get to America. She had no desire to get back. She, like so many immigrants of the day, looked to America as a place of transformation. Much of the book is about the immigrant experience and the lengths May would go to acheive some measure of success (mainly through prostitution and crime).

One aspect I certainly enjoyed in the book was the focus on the lives of prostitutes in turn of the century America. Your heart breaks when you learn that some women serviced an average of 25 customers a day!

An aspect I did not like about the book included the degree of speculation from the author, something referenced in other reviews of the biography.

All in all, a colorful biography and well worth the time.

This sad story of a good life gone bad is far to previlent in this society. May made some bad choices.

Chicago May

She must have been charming in life, as all these years later, May has me enthralled. Having read her autobiography, I had to have more. This book is chock full of historical detail which is right up my alley. I also have now purchased Eddie Guerin's book, just so I can catch another glimpse of her, although his version is suspect. I did notice that May says she left home at 13 or 14 and was widowed by age 15. This book says she ran away at 19. Makes me wonder if she was trying to appear younger than she actually was, an old female trick if ever there was one. Thank you so much for writing this book Nuala O'Faolain.