Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women

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A tenacious doctor with a sharp eye for detail brings us a unique and completely absorbing look at the world's oldest profession in Brothel. As an aspiring medical student with a keen interest in public health, Alexa Albert was shocked to learn that prostitution was legal in the state of Nevada. But what she found equally surprising was that Nevada's licensed brothels are remarkably free from the violence and drugs commonly associated with prostitution, and that the incidence of "entertainers" transmitting HIV and other STDs is virtually nonexistent. So, is legalized prostitution better for the working girls -- and the public -- than illegal prostitution? She was determined to find out.

With astonishing determination, Dr. Albert traveled to Nevada to expose the day-to-day world of Nevada's houses of prostitution. As a guest at the legendary Mustang Ranch brothel, she met a colorful, often tragic set of characters. Readers are introduced to a number of women, many of whom are mothers and wives as well as prostitutes. We also meet a host of supporting players -- including George, a retired minister with the unlikely job of executive director of the Nevada Brothel Association (not to be confused with the NBA). Dr. Albert doesn't let the doors of the "bedrooms," where the women entertain their clients, keep her from her research, either. She goes behind them, playing "voyeur," as she wrestles with the question at the root of her exploration. Her account is both a bracing political discussion and a disarming view of a distinctive slice of life. (Summer 2001 Selection)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Perhaps the most prominent legal brothel in Nevada, Mustang Ranch held mythical status in contemporary Western culture until it was shut down on racketeering charges in 1999. As a medical student, Albert was granted rare access to this intensely private world in order to conduct a study on condom use, and lived periodically at Mustang Ranch from 1993 to 1999. Her routine study soon deepened in tandem with her curiosity about the politics of prostitution and about the prostitutes themselves. In this straightforward account, she details the brothel regimen (from the women's relative captivity to what happens during various "parties") and explores the private lives of the women who work there, as well as those of the "johns" and the workers who service the Ranch. Yet the heart of the book lies in Albert's exploration of the sense of family that thrives in the brothel with all the fractious infighting, competition and camaraderie inherent in any community. Her short history of the legalization of prostitution in Nevada revolves around Joe and Sally Conforte who officially owned Mustang Ranch until charges of tax evasion forced Joe into hiding in South America in 1990 while illuminating the confluence of public opinion and economic forces that spurred legalization. Acknowledging her own feelings (which range from disgust to profound respect), Albert convincingly dispels myths about this mysterious world and provides a strong defense for the legalization of prostitution. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In Brothel, which reads, by turns, like a research study, a cultural history, and a biography, Albert (now in her medical residency) investigates the work and lives of the ladies of the (in)famous Mustang Ranch, which in its time (it was shut down in 1999) was one of Nevada's largest, best-known, and richest brothels. Her interest in the Mustang Ranch was prompted by a study she was conducting on how prostitutes protect themselves from the sexually transmitted diseases while on the job. But after her initial three-week study was completed, Albert continued to visit the working girls she befriended over the next four years, spending a total of seven months with them. Using personal stories and anecdotes from the women she meets at Mustang, Albert shows them to be more than merely ladies of the night; instead, they are women with real names, families, hopes, and fears, like the rest of us. Although Albert is clearly sympathetic to the plight of these women, she is careful to present a balanced account of what it means to be a prostitute in a legalized brothel. The tone is engaging, and some sections are a little raunchy. Written for a popular audience, this is highly recommended for sociology, women's studies, and cultural history collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/01.] Kim Clarke, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An unrevealing glimpse of daily life in the sex trade. In the late 1980s, Albert, a medical doctor with expertise in public-health issues, approached a representative of Nevada's legal brothel industry to ask about interviewing prostitutes on various matters of sexual health. Then as now, the brothels were AIDS-free, a matter of much interest to epidemiologists and sociologists alike—and something of an advertisement for the business. The representative finally consented, assuming that Albert would at least report that the brothels were safe. He got something more with this book, which is an enthusiastic defense of the "working girls" of the famed Mustang Ranch near Reno, who mix feigned pleasure with grim resignation as they engage in assembly-line sex with a never-ending stream of customers. Albert repeatedly interviewed many such women about their work, who responded more or less willingly to her inquiries (though one of the madams had ordered them to talk, saying that "they needed to give something back . . . for the privilege of working in a legal house"). Psychologically scarred, exhausted, and sometimes stalked by obsessed customers, these prostitutes—whom the author, in unnecessary PC moments, refers to as "members of the brothel community"—provide Albert with plenty of titillating material, which she processes with a mix of clinical detachment and righteous indignation on their behalf, and all in prose that limps across the page. At heart, she concludes, "These women are just like the rest of us," a summary that will doubtless not go over well with moralists and activists of many stripes, but that may give a prostitute or two a warm feeling of self-validation.There's some news here, particularly on how sex workers can help prevent the spread of disease. But there's not much depth, and readers are likely to respond to Albert's report from the field with a shrug.