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Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir. Lillian Faderman. Houghton Mifflin: 2003 (hardcover). ISBN: 0618128751. 368 pages.
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If you have done some reading in the fields of women's studies or gay and lesbian studies, there's a good chance you'll have come across the name and work of Lillian Faderman, one of the original pioneers in both disciplines. But you may not know that before she became honored professor Dr. Lillian Faderman, she was Lil, a 38-21-36 knockout who put herself through college as a pinup girl (of the nearly nude variety) and early grad school as a burlesque dancer (of the pasties and g-string persuasion).
Before Diamond Lil discovered the commercial uses of her beauty to men and the personal preference of her heart for women, she was Lilly, a snaggle-haired little girl who carried the last and best hopes of a murdered family on her diminutive shoulders. Lilly's mother Mary and her Aunt Rae were the only two of the family to escape from their Latvian shtetl before Hitler's men arrived to do a little ethnic cleansing. Now, as an orphaned, unmarried, illiterate immigrant sweatshop worker, Mary's terrible fits of depression and recurring psychotic episodes inspire her daughter Lilly's passionate quest to become a movie star and thus save her mother from the demons of poverty, drudgery, and madness. Lillian Faderman's story of one brick-house babe chasing the American Dream--falling into the inappropriate hands of the wrong men and the confusing beds of the wrong women as she learns how to use her brains instead of her body to transform her family fortunes--is an absolute dream of a read, so fascinating and thought-provoking on so many levels, so brave, gritty, and real. Thank you, Dr. Faderman, for lending us your life, for making us rethink (here's the short list) the immigrant experience, the coming-of-age story, the feminist movement of the 50s and 60s, the Odd Girl Out dilemma, and the quest for love, security, and self-actualization that often eludes but ultimately shapes us all. Great stuff for all aspiring students of American social history, be they of the book group, classroom, or armchair inclination. As seen on Ellen on Seven.
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