The Virgin Cure – Review

From the opening line “Mama sold me the summer I turned twelve,” Ami McKay’s latest novel The Virgin Cure will  hold your attention and keep you spellbound. Moth is a young girl of 12, part gypsy, living in dire poverty with her fortune-telling mother in 19th century Manhattan. She is endured by her mother and, from early on she is objectified and yet relatively unaware of her beauty. She is sold at 12 years old for a price she is never told and often fixates on, asking herself how much it took for a mother to sell her daughter. Moth becomes a maid in the home of a wealthy sadistic woman named Mrs. Wentworth. The mistress of the house beats her for the slightest infraction or inattention to detail and Nestor, an employee who befriends Moth eventually promises her there is a way out and he will help her find it. Unfortunately Moth is beaten terribly first and her beautiful hair hacked off, largely because the lady of the house maniacally worries her husband will return from business and lust after Moth.

Eventually Moth escapes this jail cell and sneaks home to where she once lived with her mother in the slums, only to find her mother is also gone. No home. No mother. No income and no family, she knows she is incredibly endangered in the slums. Her virginity, in the age of syphilis when infected men sought out virgins believing they could cure themselves by having sex with one, puts her even more at risk. When a charming young woman named Mae approaches Moth with the offer to live and be clothed and fed inside the home of a Madame, Moth makes a calculated choice. She becomes “an almost whore” or in other words a whore in training. She is cleaned up and groomed, in more ways than one, for a life serving men sexually. Moth is a naive child at the start of this novel, but the pace at which she is forced to grow up is extremely accelerated and almost unreal. Her character is somewhat complex because despite her age, she is quickly street savvy and smarter than most. She thinks her life as a near whore quite tolerable until faced with the reality of her debt to the madame that has essentially bought her service and virginity. Moth makes friends inside her new home and is mentored by a young whore named Rose. At times she is obviously still a child playing childish games like Tag and Hide N Seek and then she transforms into a bewitching and manipulative young mistress.  I couldn`t help reading this book with an eye to how great and rich this book would be if adapted also for the screen.

Historically The Virgin Cure is fascinating and disgusting and a really compelling read. It is every bit as well written as the Birth House. Interspersed with snippets of news and trivia from the time period, it is extremely creative. I often am jarred by books that intersperse fake news fictionalized inside the plot of a novel, but for some reason here in this context the snippets of news weren’t jarring to me. They were not necessarily rooted in realism but that seemed okay as it sort of supported the slightly gothic tone and the fabulous streak woven throughout. McKay writes fabulous female characters that are quite well rounded. Moth is such a great main character, really a unique girl child with a worldly side and, in the end although she is a whore, she is fantastically strong and fully takes charge of her own fate.  

There is, of course, an unexpected twist towards the end that is not quite heartbreaking, but tragic nonetheless. This time period is very rich and McKay, of Nova Scotia, is a lovely writer reminding me slightly of London`s Emma Donoghue, author of Slammerkin and The Room.The Virgin Cure is well researched. McKay is very thorough at painting a scene and a historical period with accuracy. Thematically there is a lot to chew on here. This is the first novel of 2012 for me and it will prove hard to top. My only tiny complaint is the narrative that jumps slightly in viewpoint when the good doctor, Sadie Fonda enters the scene.