Naked : on sex, work, and other burlesques /

Burlesque performer Fancy Feast fell in love with the stage during a high-school production of Cabaret. "Nuns are called to serve Christ," she quips. "I was called to serve burlesque." In this smart and engaging essay collection, she examines American cultural norms around sex, nudity, power, desire, and consent. People think Fancy Feast, as a fat woman, is "brave to strip in public," but as with all burlesque, she notes, "their reaction undresses them, not me." She documents her path to becoming a nightlife performer while working day jobs as a sex-toy store employee, phone sex line operator, and social worker. Along the way, she shares a rollicking series of adventures with readers, from performing at the most exclusive and lavish events to rough-and-ready motorcycle rallies to demonstrating sex toys and talking about consent at both bachelorette parties and conventions for cancer survivors. Honest, explicit, and sometimes vulnerable, this revealing debut offers much for readers to enjoy.

Burlesque performer Feast debuts with a frank and riotously entertaining memoir in essays. From a young age, Feast loved making costumes, and in high school, a production of Cabaret kick-started a lifelong love of performing risqué dance numbers. Into adulthood, Feast's parents remained supportive of her interests, with her mother attending her burlesque performances while her father politely stayed home, sometimes brainstorming business strategies and branding opportunities. Feast supplemented her dancing income with a $12-an-hour day job at a sex shop, where she hawked sex toys, fended off handsy customers, and answered intimate sex questions from patrons who'd received subpar information from their doctors. In addition to her professional exploits as an entertainer and de facto sex educator, Feast graphically recounts many of her own sexual encounters, which involve pushing all manner of boundaries and sexual mores, including but not limited to group sex, bondage, and notions that fat women should be ashamed of their bodies. The effect is never purely titillating: she uses her experiences in the bedroom and on the burlesque stage to illuminate the human need for acceptance, love, comfort, and community. Such softness suffuses the volume and helps it touch readers' hearts. This mind-expanding peek inside the erotic entertainment industry has more than its fair share of pleasures. Agent: Connor Goldsmith, Fuse Literary. (Oct.)

This book's author, a burlesque performer, sex educator, and social worker, explores these roles and industries in her electrifying debut collection of essays. The book transports readers through the gritty, glamorous (and often taboo) worlds she inhabits in essays that are equal parts memoir and cultural musings on sex, performance, and connection. Whether she is detailing the moments before taking the stage at a burlesque show ("Mistress of Ceremonies"), leading a sex toy workshop for cancer survivors ("Dildo Lady"), or starting the day at Rikers Island as a social worker student and ending it in a Metropolitan Opera production ("In the Field"), the author and her stories are captivating and infused with vulnerability and humor. Regardless of the setting, she affords each experience with care and striking attention to detail. Her essays are a powerful, entertaining testament to embracing all of the facets of oneself. VERDICT A titillating, insightful essay collection. This standout title will attract both fans of literary nonfiction and readers interested in performance or sexuality studies. Those looking for other bold, witty essays may also enjoy Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby.--Kate Bellody

Intimate essays from a performer who challenges outdated constructs regarding art, sex, and love. A burlesque dancer, sex educator, and social worker, Fancy Feast began her stage life early on, with her high school's production of Cabaret, originally cast as Fräulein Schneider. "It was a juicy role but I didn't want it," she writes. "The role of the old, sexless crone or pathetic undesirable always, always goes to the fat girl." Instead, she asked to be cast as a Kit Kat Girl (part of the chorus line); she completely engulfed herself in the character and embraced the sexiness the role invited. The author points to this moment, at age 15, as pivotal to her eventual career. "Nuns are called to serve Christ," she writes, "and I was called to serve burlesque." From then on, she was dedicated to creating a life on the stage. She attended countless events to teach herself the art of burlesque and of performance in general. While divulging the secrets of the industry--from pastie ("a miracle of engineering") fixes to what she always carries before a show--the author uses humor and wit to keep readers on their toes, wondering what item of clothing, what layer, she is going to strip off next. She consistently entertains with her often jaw-dropping stories of the nightcrawlers who frequented the sex shop where she worked and other anecdotes about her love life, and she is candid about the elements of shame involved with being an overweight woman who is often desired only in the dark. The author invites us to confront our own views on sexuality, communication, acceptance, and power while honestly sharing her experiences. Ultimately, she makes us question our assumptions about which bodies deserve to be seen and celebrated. A meaningful, vulnerable look at the world of burlesque from a storyteller who isn't afraid to show a little skin. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.