Molly Bit - by Dan Bevacqua (Paperback)

About the Book

"Molly Bit doesn't believe she's destined for success - she knows it. This certainly helps her get through the countless auditions featuring actors who look and dress just like she does; helps her swallow the indignity of less talented actors landing roles; even helps her endure the industry's aggressive over-sexualizing of young women. When Molly is offered a lead role in a major film, she knows, too, that to seize this opportunity she must sacrifice everything. Even her commitment to an old friend. It's her big break, and Molly becomes a star. But she soon learns the hardest part of fame is everything after."--Publisher description.

Book Synopsis

A "slick page-turner" (Vanity Fair) about the rise of an enigmatic Hollywood star and her legacy, from Columbia MFA graduate Dan Bevacqua.A tragic death was not part of the script. Molly Bit is a great actress. From her first acting classes to her big break she is different from the others struggling to make it. But fame is perilous. She uses--and is used by--the Hollywood system. Her collaborator is an addict. The producer who promises her stardom is ruthless and unhinged by grief. Fans, friends, strangers--they want and want. And one dangerously obsessed fan will take everything. Insightful, witty, and shocking, Molly Bit "delves into the dark corners of fame...[while] managing to be a scathingly funny exposé of celebrity life" (Laura Sims, author of Looker) and explores the high stakes of our culture's fascination with the famous and our complicity in their rise and fall. Molly Bit is a "fast, funny, and delightfully fun" (Adam Wilson, author of Flatscreen) debut novel that offers a heartbreaking reflection of fame, obsession, and art's power to redeem loss.

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR MOLLY BIT BY DAN BEVACQUA "A slick page-turner that dives headfirst into the celluloid world of celebrity and obsession through the rags-to-riches story of a star." - VANITY FAIR "Though it delves into the dark corners of fame-its excesses and attendant dangers-Dan Bevacqua's Molly Bit also manages to be a scathingly funny expose of celebrity life, a warm and insightful character study, a compulsively readable Hollywood success story, and, ultimately, a celebration of the tenacity and grit it takes to be alive and deeply human, making art."-LAURA SIMS, AUTHOR OF LOOKER "Imagine if together Nathanael West and Andy Warhol had a love child, and there we have Molly Bit. The eponymous and aptly named protagonist of Dan Bevacqua's first-rate, darkly comic debut novel is wickedly funny and just plain wicked. What won't she do for fame? Molly Bit is the perfect anti-heroine for our time."-BINNIE KIRSHENBAUM, AUTHOR OF RABBITS FOR FOOD "Dan Bevacqua's debut is a bravura performance on the subject of performance, a withering but ultimately humane look at the masks we all wear, and the way those masks become fused to our faces until they're indistinct from the faces themselves. Equal parts Didion and DeLillo, Sunset Boulevard and Cassavetes' Opening Night, Molly Bit is fast, funny, and delightfully fun. But be careful: the novel fans open like a butterfly knife, revealing a hidden and menacing blade. Bevacqua has an impeccable ear for the American vernacular-its pulse and its pauses, its sudden swings-a rare talent we'll be reading for a long time to come."-ADAM WILSON, AUTHOR OF FLATSCREEN "A captivating, psychological novel, Molly Bit shines a floodlight on the dark side of Hollywood and the fleeting pleasures of fame. In sly, lyrical prose, this book skillfully and unsentimentally digs deep into the minds of its characters. Bevacqua swerves through time and space, through ambition and desperation, finding heart and pain on every page."-RACHEL B. GLASER, AUTHOR OF PAULINA & FRAN

About the Author

Dan Bevacqua was born in New Jersey and grew up in Vermont. He earned his MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts. His short stories have been published in The Literary Review, Electric Literature, and The Best American Mystery Stories. He lives in Western Massachusetts. Molly Bit is his first novel.