A former superstar of Andy Warholโs Factory offers an intimate tale of sex, drugs, art, and motherhood, based on video recordings
The Baby is not your average parenthood novel. Viva, a.k.a. Viva Superstarโactor, writer, painter, denizen of Andy Warholโs world-famous Factory, and early pioneer in video artsโweaves a tale of childbirth and motherhood with often-shocking candor, exploring a new motherโs mixed emotions and her internal and external conflicts. Based on filmed records created by Vivaโs husband, Michael Auder, of their daughterโs difficult birth and early development, and interspersed with stills from their life, Vivaโs addictive video novel tells the story of a fictional couple, Augustine and Frederick Marat, whose unorthodox parenting takes them from New York to Paris to Casablanca to California.
In her own unique style, Viva explores breast-feeding and breast pumps, infidelity and incest while offering startlingly intimate details of a familyโs singular lifestyle. An unabashedly autobiographical literary invention, alternately outrageous and honest, revelatory and touching, The Baby is truly one of a kind.