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Rating: 
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: After recently returning from New Orleans, I embarked on a literary trip through the city. I've been reading everything and anything--cookbooks, fictional stories and works of non-fiction. I am quite disappointed at the missed opportunity this book represents. The subject matter could have made for a great tale, but the book's construction leaves much to be desired. Transitions are awkward and the delivery is stilted. I would pass this one by.
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Page Turner
Review: I could not put this book down. Every page turned was a new adventure. The author did a great job describing New Orleans way back when. A must read for anyone who is curious as to what goes on in a whorehouse. Norma Wallace was larger than life and lived her life to the fullest, just the way she wanted to. I found it very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: If you love New Orleans
Review: interested me. This book did not let me down. Interested in History, biographies, interesting powerful and resourceful women......read how this woman succeeded ......even unto her death.....a must read! Loved it, in fact love it reading it again.......
Rating:
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: Living in metropolitan New Orleans for the last twenty five years and working adjacent to the French Quarter, I found this book to be a very interesting overview of politics and the prostitution business over the middle half of the twentieth century. The views of the mayors, the cops and the working girls are pretty superficial, but that is all right. Although it is not particularly well written, the book is very readable. I wonder, though, if I would have enjoyed it nearly as much if I lived in Cleveland...or Des Moines.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as interesting as one would think.
Review: This book had all the makings of a true page turner - a madam, her girls, political corruption, a hot steamy setting and more, it just didn't read like a page turner. Yes, there were parts that held me captive on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened, but then there were vast sections that were about as interesting to read as the telephone book. Gleaned from her own taped memoirs and other previously written articles as well as interviews with friends and accquaintences the professional life of Norma Wallace, New Orlean's last madam, seemed rather lack luster. With so much raw material, what went wrong? Oddly the later parts of the book, after Ms. Wallace's retirement from the business seemed to hold much more interest for me than those dealing with her working days. From a historical perspective I think this was a good read as Ms. Wallace's life in the French Quarter spanned quite a long period of time. This is not the stuff you learn about in Louisiana history. I learned alot more about our past mayors from this book than I ever did in a history class. I particularly liked that addresses of the houses where she was a "landlady" were given. I will definately spend some afternoon in the near future scouring the French Quarter for these addresses. All in all it was a fairly decent book. I think it will hold particular interest for New Orleaneans like myself, but would not be as appealing to the rest of the general popluation.
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately tragic
Review: This is a fascinating life story involving the rags to riches tale of Norma Wallace. The story contains countless episodes of intrigue and salacious details of the Brothel business that make for a very entertaining read. There are other passages that get quite bogged down in detail regarding ancillary characters that don't add much to the narrative flow. Overall Norma Wallace is portrayed very sympathetically and sounds like someone who would be fabulous to have a few drinks with and listen to. However she ends very badly as a victim of her own vanity and insecurity.
The descriptions of the French Quarter during the 1st half of the 20th century are great reading for lovers of New Orleans. I'll be sure to walk down Conti St. on my next visit and see if I can find some of the places described in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great account!
Review: This story tells of the life of a New Orleans madam and how her youth shaped her whole life, from leaving a less-than-ideal family to set out on her own to build her own fortune and fame. Always adhering to strict rules to provide the highest class of service to her clients, Norma is on a constant search for true love, often finding that she couldn't give up her work to stay home and be a traditional wife and mother. In the end, Norma gets the guy, until her obsession with beauty and youth becomes more than even she can handle and her world slowly starts to fall apart. The only criticism is that this book is less like a story and more a historical account of her life. Nonetheless, a very interesting read!
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Review: When the subject of this book shrugs off being shot in the ankle because she got a 7-carat diamond ring out of the affair, you know this is no ordinary person. Norma Wallace was one of the last Madams' of New Orleans. For more than 4 decades she ran her various houses that were the locations where young men were brought for their introduction to the carnal pleasures of adulthood, where actresses and actors frequently paid visits, and where a good percentage of politicians and law enforcement officers also passed some time. The book is not a glorification of what was at times a brutal existence. The book and the behavior of many is entertaining, but when reality becomes a bit too easy, incidents that were absolutely horrible brought reality back with great intensity. This is a story of a woman who knew what she wanted at a very young age, and who by the 1920's was making 100,000 per year. To survive and thrive during changes in political landscapes she was not only an exceedingly shrewd businesswoman, she was also a grand manipulator of politicians, and law enforcement. She managed to fit in 5 marriages, a relationship with a nationally known gangster, and the creation of a wildly successful restaurant business in with all her other interests. This woman was one of the original practitioners of multitasking. All of this came with a price, the same man who was a gangster might try to kill her one night, her jewelry that was valued at 70,000 decades ago and which she wore daily would make her a target. And for 40 years there was always some new rookie cop or politician that wanted to make his mark by closing her down. The story is wild, amazing and true; the read is almost as fast paced as her life.
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