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Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir
Born in 1940, Lillian Faderman was the only child of an uneducated and unmarried immigrant Jewish woman. Her mother, whose family perished in the Holocaust, was racked by guilt at having come to America and left them behind; she suffered recurrent psychotic episodes. Her only escape from the brutal labor of her sweatshop job was her fiercely loved daughter, Lilly, whose poignant dream throughout an impoverished childhood was to become a movie star and "rescue" her mother.
Lilly grew up to become Lil, outwardly tough, inwardly innocent, hungry for love and success. A beautiful young woman who was learning that her deepest erotic and emotional connections were to women, she found herself in a dangerous but seductive lesbian underworld of addicts, pimps, and prostitutes. Desperately seeking to make her life meaningful and to redeem her mother's suffering, she entered the University of California at Berkeley and worked her way through college as a burlesque stripper. A brilliant student, she ultimately achieved a Ph.D. At last she became Lillian, the woman who in time became a loving partner, a devoted mother, an acclaimed writer, and a charismatic, groundbreaking scholar of gay and lesbian studies. Told with wrenching immediacy and great power, this is an extraordinary memoir: the nakedly honest -- and very American -- story of an exceptional woman and her remarkable, unorthodox life.
Lilly grew up to become Lil, outwardly tough, inwardly innocent, hungry for love and success. A beautiful young woman who was learning that her deepest erotic and emotional connections were to women, she found herself in a dangerous but seductive lesbian underworld of addicts, pimps, and prostitutes. Desperately seeking to make her life meaningful and to redeem her mother's suffering, she entered the University of California at Berkeley and worked her way through college as a burlesque stripper. A brilliant student, she ultimately achieved a Ph.D. At last she became Lillian, the woman who in time became a loving partner, a devoted mother, an acclaimed writer, and a charismatic, groundbreaking scholar of gay and lesbian studies. Told with wrenching immediacy and great power, this is an extraordinary memoir: the nakedly honest -- and very American -- story of an exceptional woman and her remarkable, unorthodox life.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published February 12, 2003
34 people are currently reading
1751 people want to read
About the author
Lillian Faderman
28 books341 followersLillian Faderman is an internationally known scholar of lesbian history and literature, as well as ethnic history and literature. Among her many honors are six Lambda Literary Awards, two American Library Association Awards, and several lifetime achievement awards for scholarship. She is the author of The Gay Revolution and the New York Times Notable Books, Surpassing the Love of Men and Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. (photo by Donn R. Nottage)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
September 24, 2009
I've known for years that Lillian Faderman is a distinguished scholar of LGBT history, but I didn't know she practically single-handedly founded LGBT studies, thanks to the power she had when she became a university vice-president in her early 30s. I've known for years that Lillian Faderman paid her own way through college by working in burlesque, but I didn't know that she had a long career in acting and soft-core porn, starting as a child, trying to "rescue" her mother from back-breaking labor.
This book is for everyone who was the first in their family to go to college. And for every woman who was ever enmeshed with her mother. And for everyone interested in the 20th-century experience of Jewish immigrants in New York. And for sex workers and people interested in the sociology of sex work. And for everyone in mixed-class relationships and those interested in thinking about class. And for everyone interested in Horatio Alger-type stories. What a life! What a book!
This book is for everyone who was the first in their family to go to college. And for every woman who was ever enmeshed with her mother. And for everyone interested in the 20th-century experience of Jewish immigrants in New York. And for sex workers and people interested in the sociology of sex work. And for everyone in mixed-class relationships and those interested in thinking about class. And for everyone interested in Horatio Alger-type stories. What a life! What a book!
June 5, 2010
there are many commendable things in this lesbian memoir, not least its unabashed lesbian focus. this is very much a story about making lesbian choices in times when lesbian choices were dangerous and politically unwise. faderman is a powerhouse of tough choices. suffice it to say that she becomes chair of her department and, subsequently, a high-ranking administrator of her university, in the early 70s, when she was two or three years past thirty. and this after a tremendously challenging childhood and adolescence.
it is in fact absolutely remarkable that faderman, born to a single mother who emigrated to the US soon before her shtetl was wiped out by the nazis; having spent her childhood with little maternal support (her mother worked herself to the bone and spent her free time in a state of psychotic grief) and in serious poverty; and having supported herself in her teenage years with nude modeling (schlepping all over L.A. at all hours on the bus from the age of 15), should have found the wherewithal to pull herself out of her family history and graduated brilliantly from berkeley and UCLA. and all this with basically no outside support.
faderman's ultimate success is, however, so anomalous that the book felt to me not inspiring but dwarfing. still, her family's misery, the dejection of her mother's unending losses, lillian's desperate attempts to bring her solace, her fearless utilization of her spectacular physique as a money-maker, her equally fearless lesbian cruising, and her close brushes with disaster are moving and compelling.
what is less effective is faderman's description of her skyrocketing academic career. she is so damn good, so effective, so diamond-hard in her choice of goals and her ability to achieve them precisely the way she intends to, you want to know more about how this little girl with a broken family and a heritage of extermination can detach herself so completely from what kept her mother in such miserable depression. even her focused and clear lesbianism, her seeming lack of inner torture when it comes to sexual choices, leaves me wondering. it is not easy to be gay under the best of circumstances. how could young lillian gallivant happily from girl to girl in the tough 60s, with no role models except for marlene dietrich?
funnily enough, while the modeling and burlesque performing passages are pretty sexy, not only because of their graphic nature but also because of the constant threat of sexual violence, the lesbian scenes felt to me detached and unemotional. faderman seems to go about hooking up the same way she later went about becoming an academic star: with the force and determination of a juggernaut.
in other words, if we are given ample opportunity to see why lillian should be seriously messed up, we are given little chance to find out how she managed not to be.
it is in fact absolutely remarkable that faderman, born to a single mother who emigrated to the US soon before her shtetl was wiped out by the nazis; having spent her childhood with little maternal support (her mother worked herself to the bone and spent her free time in a state of psychotic grief) and in serious poverty; and having supported herself in her teenage years with nude modeling (schlepping all over L.A. at all hours on the bus from the age of 15), should have found the wherewithal to pull herself out of her family history and graduated brilliantly from berkeley and UCLA. and all this with basically no outside support.
faderman's ultimate success is, however, so anomalous that the book felt to me not inspiring but dwarfing. still, her family's misery, the dejection of her mother's unending losses, lillian's desperate attempts to bring her solace, her fearless utilization of her spectacular physique as a money-maker, her equally fearless lesbian cruising, and her close brushes with disaster are moving and compelling.
what is less effective is faderman's description of her skyrocketing academic career. she is so damn good, so effective, so diamond-hard in her choice of goals and her ability to achieve them precisely the way she intends to, you want to know more about how this little girl with a broken family and a heritage of extermination can detach herself so completely from what kept her mother in such miserable depression. even her focused and clear lesbianism, her seeming lack of inner torture when it comes to sexual choices, leaves me wondering. it is not easy to be gay under the best of circumstances. how could young lillian gallivant happily from girl to girl in the tough 60s, with no role models except for marlene dietrich?
funnily enough, while the modeling and burlesque performing passages are pretty sexy, not only because of their graphic nature but also because of the constant threat of sexual violence, the lesbian scenes felt to me detached and unemotional. faderman seems to go about hooking up the same way she later went about becoming an academic star: with the force and determination of a juggernaut.
in other words, if we are given ample opportunity to see why lillian should be seriously messed up, we are given little chance to find out how she managed not to be.
June 21, 2023
A really important book. I love reading about how lesbians formed themselves and identities in this period (post war but pre gay rights movement) out of virtually nothing, how her abilities to live with those she loved was actually more constrained by sexist law than by overt homophobia...
There were many threads and some of which come out more on thinking. Her life lived in the shadow of the shadow of the Holocaust which affected her mother and aunt so deeply; what making something of yourself as an immigrant might mean in America (this book criticises and upholds the American dream both); about the decade she did of sex work, which she writes about as seriously and as boringly as her time spent studying for her PhD -
Overall really enjoyed, (although I don't know if I'd get on with her) I am so grateful and proud that she was - there's no other word for it - BRAVE - to work and work and desire what you want, whether it be women or education.
There were many threads and some of which come out more on thinking. Her life lived in the shadow of the shadow of the Holocaust which affected her mother and aunt so deeply; what making something of yourself as an immigrant might mean in America (this book criticises and upholds the American dream both); about the decade she did of sex work, which she writes about as seriously and as boringly as her time spent studying for her PhD -
Overall really enjoyed, (although I don't know if I'd get on with her) I am so grateful and proud that she was - there's no other word for it - BRAVE - to work and work and desire what you want, whether it be women or education.
December 5, 2010
what an underrated gem this book is! it's a beautifully-written memoir, about growing up queer and poor and jewish in the 1940's and 50's. i really felt like i was there with faderman, in the seedy gay bars and pinup photography studios, all the way to her tenured-professor, partner-and-a-baby life of the 70's and 80's. ms. faderman has made a career of keeping gay/lesbian history alive, and her own personal history is definitely worth reading too. i couldn't put it down!
March 23, 2015
This is probably my favorite memoir of all time. Her life is interesting and unexpected and the writing is outstanding. Clearly a five star book! I read it when it was first published and recently read it again, enjoying it just as much the second time around. Don't miss this one.
January 3, 2025
I thought this was well written and a lot of fun!! I'm forgiving of the like memoirisms in this bc I loved it and I think the drama/stylization really works with Lillian Faderman's life. Her childhood takes up most of the book and I would have liked more about the lesbian scene and the women's movement (ofc!). Also the sexual violence is upsetting!!
Loved the familial relationships, the fake marriages, toxic lesbians, bar scenes, lesbian motherhood!
Loved the familial relationships, the fake marriages, toxic lesbians, bar scenes, lesbian motherhood!
January 11, 2024
Adore this book. Gritty, honest, real, and told by a compelling protagonist with an interesting voice. It's witty, brutal, and intriguing in all the right places, and what sets it apart most is that this has re-readability unlike other books that cover this matter.
September 6, 2022
This read is packed with emotion. The three women Lillian, her mother Mary and her Aunt Rae make quite a triad and have lived quite a life. Each wanting for life. Life can be obtained in many ways. Life can also look different for different reasons.
September 25, 2015
Ms. Faderman's story could have been a riveting novel, except that the series of events would have stretched our incredulity for its bigger-than-life experiences that could only be believed in the real world, not in fiction.
Lillian goes through derivatives of her name as Lil or Lily, with each name representing a phase in her turbulent life. She tells the extraordinary story of growing as a very poor girl to an unwed mother who had made a series of very poor choices she lives to regret. These life changing decisions haunt not only the mother, who is given to bouts of depression and temporary loss of her faculties, but deeply affect her daughter's life and choices.
From struggling to become an talented actress with "a bad face, a good body," to become a sex model--at fourteen--to older men with cameras shooting her photographs for their private pleasure, Lillian's freefall is almost certain. But in a last moment stroke of realization--supported by an encouraging teacher--she returns to high school.
In years to come, as Lillian holds on by her teeth to her continuing education, she continues to make ends meet as a pin-up model. The minimum wage in the 50s and 60s in more conventional occupations is way below living wages. (The author saves herself no embarrassment as she peppers the book with actual photographs of her naked poses.) At the same time, never doubting her homosexual makeup, she falls in and out of relationships, most of which start great, last for a good while, then wither away. All the while Lillian puts out a semi-respectable front for the sake of her mother and aunt, including marrying a gay man and later dating a straight man.
Once she reaches adulthood and finishes her graduate studies, in a university campus she had never planned to stay for more than one school year, Dr. Faderman rises up the ranks and is given opportunities to develop one of the earliest women's studies programs in the county--and the first to celebrate gay writing.
A wonderful, riveting book that is highly recommended both for its fluid prose as for it story-telling of a remarkable life...
Lillian goes through derivatives of her name as Lil or Lily, with each name representing a phase in her turbulent life. She tells the extraordinary story of growing as a very poor girl to an unwed mother who had made a series of very poor choices she lives to regret. These life changing decisions haunt not only the mother, who is given to bouts of depression and temporary loss of her faculties, but deeply affect her daughter's life and choices.
From struggling to become an talented actress with "a bad face, a good body," to become a sex model--at fourteen--to older men with cameras shooting her photographs for their private pleasure, Lillian's freefall is almost certain. But in a last moment stroke of realization--supported by an encouraging teacher--she returns to high school.
In years to come, as Lillian holds on by her teeth to her continuing education, she continues to make ends meet as a pin-up model. The minimum wage in the 50s and 60s in more conventional occupations is way below living wages. (The author saves herself no embarrassment as she peppers the book with actual photographs of her naked poses.) At the same time, never doubting her homosexual makeup, she falls in and out of relationships, most of which start great, last for a good while, then wither away. All the while Lillian puts out a semi-respectable front for the sake of her mother and aunt, including marrying a gay man and later dating a straight man.
Once she reaches adulthood and finishes her graduate studies, in a university campus she had never planned to stay for more than one school year, Dr. Faderman rises up the ranks and is given opportunities to develop one of the earliest women's studies programs in the county--and the first to celebrate gay writing.
A wonderful, riveting book that is highly recommended both for its fluid prose as for it story-telling of a remarkable life...
August 4, 2016
Lillian Faderman, author, is merely one aspect of the complex and fascinating woman that is Lillian Faderman. In her memoir, Naked in the Promised Land, Faderman explores the seeds of her identity as a small child in New York City to her trial by fire adolescence and young adulthood in East Los Angeles. Her mother and her aunt were the sole survivors, due to their immigration to the United States, of their family's destruction by the Nazis. Faderman struggled to realize their dreams, as well as find her own. The memoir follows her through rough periods of acting, modeling, relationships, and burlesque dancing. Supportive persons emerge along the way, helping her to eventually realize her academic dreams. The memoir is rich and does not shy away from all gradations of her person. I highly recommend it!
January 31, 2021
“Naked in the Promised Land” promises a lot with that title, and lives up to that expectation.
It’s what you anticipate from Lillian Faderman’s memoir: riveting, educational, racy, feminist. It’s also what you don’t expect: tender, familial, and true.
I found that I related so much with Lillian in her relationships and desires (keep in mind I am straight, Midwestern, and was raised a Christian in the upper-middle class 21st century). I also found that following her life made me want to make a better one for myself.
Lillian Faderman is direct, sympathetic, and understanding. She is a revolutionary thinker and an intellectual giant. I thank her for this book and for all her work, in academia and the world.
It’s what you anticipate from Lillian Faderman’s memoir: riveting, educational, racy, feminist. It’s also what you don’t expect: tender, familial, and true.
I found that I related so much with Lillian in her relationships and desires (keep in mind I am straight, Midwestern, and was raised a Christian in the upper-middle class 21st century). I also found that following her life made me want to make a better one for myself.
Lillian Faderman is direct, sympathetic, and understanding. She is a revolutionary thinker and an intellectual giant. I thank her for this book and for all her work, in academia and the world.
August 6, 2022
The only child of an unmarried Jewish immigrant, Faderman was raised in poverty. She wanted to be a movie star, but instead was drawn as a teenager into Hollywood's shady sex trade. She grabs a chance to study at university, financing her studies by working as a pin-up model and burlesque dancer.
Faderman is now a respected professor and renowned scholar. If you've never read her works on lesbian history like Surpassing the Love of Men, or Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, you are in for a treat.
This memoir is clear, funny and powerful, and a loving tribute to her mother. Well worth a read.
Faderman is now a respected professor and renowned scholar. If you've never read her works on lesbian history like Surpassing the Love of Men, or Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, you are in for a treat.
This memoir is clear, funny and powerful, and a loving tribute to her mother. Well worth a read.
November 27, 2011
A great memoir of a Jewish lesbian growing up in the 50's and 60's, born to a single Jewish mother whose family was killed by the Holocaust, save the girl's mother and mother's sister, who had previously been sent to the U.S.. Against all odds, the author's education was somewhat her salvation, and led to positions of power at a university in the 70's, a time when women and minorities faced heavy discrimination. A leader in gay/lesbian publishing, deciding to conceive a child through insemination in the 70's, and yet not able to be out to her family. What an honest, wonderful read.
March 25, 2012
WOW - I rarely read non-fiction. My partner had read this for her book group and I needed something to hold me over until I could get to the library so....
And I couldn't put it down. This is so well written. I have heard Lillian Faderman speak and thought she was a wonderful historian, lesbian advocate etc. I had no idea how she got there.
And the story is amazing. And fun. And heart wrenching. What a great book.
And I couldn't put it down. This is so well written. I have heard Lillian Faderman speak and thought she was a wonderful historian, lesbian advocate etc. I had no idea how she got there.
And the story is amazing. And fun. And heart wrenching. What a great book.
November 3, 2018
This marvelous memoir makes me admire the author tremendously. She was a "first" in so many things, starting with the first in her family to get an education. Although her way of paying for it was certainly nontraditional, she fearlessly (and sometimes fearfully) did what ever she needed to do to reach her goals. I definitely will read more by Faderman.
March 20, 2013
A beautifully written memoir about a girl being raised by her single mother and how she grows and develops into a leader in the feminist movement.
April 28, 2015
Amazing story. Amazing life. Amazing book... with all the momentum of a novel.
March 4, 2020
An absolute perfect memoir ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
July 10, 2021
I think this is now one of my favourite books. I'm glad it's a memoir and that Lillian is real, she's iconic.
May 18, 2020
I knew Lillian Faderman only by her research, after reading a couple of her books on lesbian history during grad school. I had no idea how interesting her background is! It's such a treasure to hear Faderman's story in her own words. Queer lives are so often erased or only analyzed through a modern lens. In this memoir, Faderman describes her experience growing up in 1940s/50s New York and L.A. as a young lesbian, and her journey from trying to be a child star to performing as a burlesque star to becoming the lesbian historian she's known as today. I really enjoyed her story; so much was unexpected, and so much is still relevant today. I do wish some of the language around race, ethnicity, and class had been updated in this 2020 edition. But beyond that, it's a really valuable text, and I'm grateful for the chance to read it. Especially with the foreword from Carmen Maria Machado - it's worth buying for that alone!
October 4, 2024
La verdad, duele demasiado y encima se siente cercano por mis experiencias (soy trans, bisexual y poliamoroso).
Me ha dolido leer muchas cosas, me he podido sentir identificado y además no he podido parar de empatizar.
Siento mucho que tuviera que pasar por todo eso hasta estar bien pero, la verdad, me alegro mucho de que todo fuera a mejor para ella.
Me ha dolido leer muchas cosas, me he podido sentir identificado y además no he podido parar de empatizar.
Siento mucho que tuviera que pasar por todo eso hasta estar bien pero, la verdad, me alegro mucho de que todo fuera a mejor para ella.
July 25, 2024
This was a charity shop find and it came to me at exactly the right time- as a pregnant lesbian growing my own extension of my own complicated family. This book brought me to tears and I loved every minute of it.
March 17, 2019
A book which would be obliged to be read in all schools
October 25, 2020
An interesting personal and historical account of a young woman discovering her sexuality and attempting to succeed financially first in the modeling and film industry and later in academia.
October 27, 2020
This was a surprisingly good memoir. I won't repeat what you can read in the book description but I would definitely recommend it.
April 12, 2022
Powerful
May 2, 2023
Loved learning about what it was like to be LGBTQ in the 1950s and 60s
September 13, 2023
What an amazing, honest, heart-full memoir. You need to read this book, whether you are LGBTQIA or an ally.
As a queer, 2nd generation immigrant, I was touched on so many levels.
As a queer, 2nd generation immigrant, I was touched on so many levels.
June 7, 2024
Faderman's memoir traces her history from New York to California and from a working-class girl raised by a single mother to becoming a lesbian mother and academic.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews