Out Of The Easy

Out Of The Easy

YA fiction
You get a book that starts out with these four sentences:
"My mother's a prostitute. Not the filthy, streetwalking kind. She's
actually quite pretty, fairly well spoken, and has lovely clothes.
But she sleeps with men for money or gifts, and, according to the
dictionary, that makes her a prostitute."
You know what you have on your hands? A must read. Ruta Sepetys' Out
Of The Easy lives up wonderfully to the promise of its first
paragraph. It grabs your mind and heart and just won't let go. YOWZA!
The year is 1950. Josie (17) is trying to find a way to go to
college far from New Orleans. For her the Big Easy is anything but.
Her prostitute mother doesn't have the sense to look after herself,
never mind a daughter but is in her life enough to have her bear the
shame of being a hooker's child. Josie works in a bookstore, lives in
a room above it, cleans house for her mom's madam, Willie, and plans
to escape to a place where folks won't expect her to follow in her
mother's footsteps.
One day a distinguished gentleman shops at the bookstore.
Josie, who has no idea who her father is, imagines he could be. So
she is shaken when he dies under suspicious circumstances that night.
She's even more shaken when her mother is accused of the murder and
when her mom, fleeing town, saddles her with a debt to the mob well
beyond her ability to pay.
The plot is spell binding. The characters are captivating. And
things are far from how they'd seem on the surface. The whore house
madam is the giver of acts of kindness and generosity. The hubbies of
some of the elite familiies, how do I say this, keep her girls in
business. Remember the good old law of supply and demand?
I am so going to read Sepetys' first book, Between Shades of
Gray, and review it if it's anywhere near as good as I expect it to
be. I also plan to read the book, The Last Madam: A Life in the New
Orleans Underworld, that inspired Out of the Easy.
On a personal note, I've got some news that should rock my readers'
worlds. Every year I give myself a special Christmas gift. After I
have the presents wrapped and delivered and the tree decorated I give
myself a few weeks to stay close to home, enjoy family, and read near
the beautiful tree with candy to snack on and dear Joey cat on my
lap. Heavenly!
Of course this means more reviews which is my gift to you!!! Enjoy!
A great big shout out goes out to the students who are in the last
stretch of projects and exams before vaca!
Julia Emily Hathaway


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