Publishers Weekly
11/20/2023
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.)
From the Publisher
Sharp and revelatory… Feast makes a hilarious, poignant and relevant contribution to a canon that normalizes open explorations of sex and revolutionizes social expectations in the process.”—The Washington Post
“Naked is a triumphant collection of essays about navigating sex industries as an unapologetic, empathetic, big-hearted millennial. I was laughing, clapping, and wincing as Fancy Feast lays bare the sexual hang-ups and misconceptions that shape our culture. I'd read her voice on anything, but I'm so glad she pointed her razor-sharp wit dead center on the things that matter: namely, the things we hide our sexuality behind, and what can be gained (and lost) from nakedness.”—Gabrielle Korn, author of Everybody (Else) Is Perfect and Yours for the Taking
“A funny and poignant exploration of sex, desire, and performance. Naked is sexy, sharp, and full of heart.”—Tracy Clark-Flory, author of Want Me
“These essays on sex, work, sex work, and sexy work reads like a dream – it’s harder to put down than a beach novel. Fancy Feast proves that the worlds so often described as ‘hidden’ are only obscured by viewers’ preconceptions and fears. She humanizes as she titillates, and shows compassion for those who want to see but are afraid of what they'll find out about themselves. Above all, she gives permission to look.”—Jo Weldon, founder of the New York School of Burlesque and author of The Burlesque Handbook
"This cheeky collection of essays by burlesque performer, social worker and sex educator Fancy Feast is a delight. Whether she’s sharing her experiences with polyamory, with fatphobia or with sex toys, Feast is candid, gracious and vulnerable."—Ms. Magazine
"If Fancy’s memoir was just a diary of her life as a burlesque performer in New York City, it would be stunning enough, but it’s more: Fancy turns the readers’ gaze back at themselves with a clear and incisive mirror, from watching sex shop customers hit each other with soft packs, to pancakes in bed with lovers forced to confront their own fatphobia. Like sitting down for an intimate show and standing up changed, Naked deserves an ovation for stripping the audience’s assumptions down to the pasties."—Samantha Cole, author of How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex
“I've known Fancy as a fierce performer—but now I’d had the privilege of being slayed by her words. Her stories are insightful, playful, and beautifully written. How lucky are we to have such intimate access to this beauty?!”—Roz the Diva
“With razor-sharp wit, beautifully drawn scenes, and incisive commentary on pleasure, fatness, and performance, Fancy Feast digs into the American psyche and offers revelations about our collective fears and obsessions. The writing is both hysterical and breathtaking, just like her act!”—Tristan Taormino, sex educator and author of The Ultimate Guide to Kink
“Electrifying… the author and her stories are captivating and infused with vulnerability and humor… a powerful, entertaining testament to embracing all of the facets of oneself.”—Library Journal
“Fancy takes us where the real show is—backstage. Rousing, riveting, and uproarious, Fancy’s takes on sexuality are invaluable. Her humor is human. She brings the earthy reflection of reality that is burlesque to a hush-hush aspect of life—sex.”—Jessica Stoya, adult icon and columnist
“A meaningful, vulnerable look at the world of burlesque from a storyteller who isn’t afraid to show a little skin.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Honest, explicit, and sometimes vulnerable, this revealing debut offers much for readers to enjoy.”—Booklist
"Such lovely writing makes “Naked” more than a book trying to destigmatize sex work and normalize all forms of sexual expression; it’s also a deeply human story of survivorship."—Boston Globe
Library Journal
★ 09/01/2023
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
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-07-26
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.
