Description
Book SynopsisBorn in 1940, Lillian Faderman is the only child of an uneducated and unmarried Jewish woman, who, along with her sister, left their shtetl in Latvia to seek a better life in America. However, her mother''s family were murdered by Nazis and their home destroyed in the war. Her mother, racked by guilt at having left her family behind, suffered from a terrible psychosis. The only relief she had from this, and her brutal sweatshop job, was her daughter, Lilly.
Lilly grows into Lil, a beautiful young woman who learns that her deepest erotic and emotional connections are with other women, and who finds herself in a dangerous but seductive world of addicts, pimps, prostitutes and sham-marriages.
Desperately seeking to make her life meaningful and to redeem her mother''s suffering, she studies at University of California, Berkeley; paying her way by working as a pin-up model and burlesque stripper, and hiding her lesbian love-affairs from the outside world. At last she become
Trade Review
Lillian Faderman's portrait of her mother and aunt, lone survivors of their slaughtered family, who have come to America laden with hope, is full of tenderness and candor and sharp, often hilarious wit. It is her unsparing portrait of herself, however, that makes this book so riveting. She is serious and ambitious, loving and stubborn. She is ready to risk everything for knowledge. She also writes beautiful sentences, and her book is likely to become a classic self-portrait in a time of change in America -- Colm Tóibín
A startling, dark, and wryly eloquent retelling of the American Dream. Who'd have thought a professor's life could be such a gripping page-turner? -- Emma Donoghue, author of ROOM and SLAMMERKIN
How one woman used her good looks to land the girl of her dreams, and found a career where she could use her brains instead of her breasts. Today Lillian Faderman is a distinguished academic; her early days among Holocaust-scarred relatives and lesbian pimps on Sunset Strip are a testament to a personal vision in the face of historical struggle -- Sarah Schulman, author of THE COSMOPOLITANS, RAT BOHEMIANS and MY AMERICAN HISTORY
A remarkable tale of emergence, bold and exciting, and wonderfully told -- Vivian Gornick, author of FIERCE ATTACHMENTS
This riveting autobiography is vivid, honest, generous, compassionate, and sensuous all at once. Its strength lies in its understanding of historical moments that are important to all women and its ability to make them come alive in a very personal way for each one of us -- Chitra Divakaruni, author of THE VINE OF DESIRE and THE UNKNOWN ERRORS OF OUR LIVES
An incredible memoir of a damaged mother and her observant daughter. Lillian Faderman has written with an amazing voice, a clear-eyed view, and wisdom on how we both save and surmount the past. Hers is a life that is truly worth recording and sharing with all of us. The photos alone are worth the price of admission. -- Amy Tan, author of THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT, THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER and THE JOY LUCK CLUB
Table of Contents
Foreword Part One: Lilly 1 How I Became an Overachiever 2 Going Crazy in East L.A. 3 Crushed 4 Men I 5 Shedding Part Two: Lil 6 Hollywood 7 My Movie-Actress Nose 8 The Open Door 9 Getting the Gift of Wisdom 10 Kicked Out 11 A Jewish Prince 12 A Married Woman Part Three: Lillian 13 Higher Education 14 How I Became a Burlesque Queen 15 Men II 16 Professor Faderman 17 How I Became a College Administrator 18 Sheaves of Oats 19 Epilogue Afterword Acknowledgements About the Author
