First published 2020
Lillian Preston discovers photography through her high school photo club and abandons her parents' plans for her college and marriage. She heads to New York City in 1955 with her camera and her ambitions. Years later, when a small gallery displays her partially nude photographs featuring herself and her daughter Samantha, the police arrest Lillian on obscenity charges. The arrest catapults both mother and daughter into national headlines. Lillian becomes known by contradictory labels: America's Worst Mother or Bravest Mother, America's Worst Photographer or Greatest Photographer. The notoriety reshapes both their lives as Lillian pursues artistic recognition throughout her career. Samantha narrates this story of her mother through her own memories, interviews with Lillian's friends and lovers, and passages from Lillian's personal journals and letters. The narrative unfolds like a photography exhibition catalog from the Museum of Modern Art, revealing a portrait of an artist who remained devoted to her vision of beauty and truth.
Genres: fiction, art, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, biographical-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York City
Period: 1955
336 pages · Paperback · Scribner
Content warnings: explicit-sexual-content, sexism