Superstar

A bold and uncensored fictional account of the wild life at Andy Warhol’s world-famous Factory by a real-life superstar who witnessed it all

Author, video artist, underground film actor, and superstar, the incomparable Viva is arguably the most famous of Andy Warhol’s protégés, a mainstay at the enigmatic artist’s Factory. In her riveting, revelatory, totally uncensored, and scandalously entertaining novel, the Factory doors are blown wide open, exposing a world of sex, drugs, and genius.

Based on Viva’s own life, Superstar is the story of Gloria, a repressed, convent-educated aspiring artist who escapes the strictures of her stifling existence and flees to New York City. Falling in with an iconic artist referred to as A. and his coterie of outrageous, beautiful avant-garde acolytes, transvestites, boy toys, and hangers-on, Gloria is reborn, undergoing a remarkable transformation from sheltered young innocent to sexual athlete, film star, and media darling. Over the course of her reawakening, she sheds her every inhibition as she experiences what ordinary people only dream about in their most secret fantasies . . . or worst nightmares.

Though the names have all been changed, the real stars of Warhol’s factory are scandalously recognizable. Viva injects her own unique style and personality into a story at once outrageous and brutally honest: the unforgettable making of a superstar.

“Viva manages to suggest a hippie Dietrich and an outgoing Garbo.” —The New York Times

“Not since Mary McCarthy’s Memories has any book so beautifully and poignantly described the hazards and results of a Catholic girlhood in America.” —Gore Vidal

“One leaves this book with the sense that a woman’s soul has been laid bare. . . . Whether this book is scandal or not, writing it was a profound act of rebellion and self-awareness. Jesus also said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ There is no way here but there is truth and life in good measure.” —TheNew York Times

“Viva’s autobiography . . . it’s marvelous. Part fiction, part tape recording, part this, part that, gloriously obscene.” —Gore Vidal, The Paris Review

“[Superstar] is the funniest, most amusing and revolting book of the year. A novel by Viva, the star of those dirty movies made by the ‘artist’ of Campbell soup cans; she here writes a novel based on her life in the gay and pop and way-out world that is the best novel of its kind since Naked Lunch. Her ear for dialogue, her sense of story, and her use of four-letter words is amazing. She is a better novelist than Bellow, or Mailer, or Updike.” —Reader’s Syndicate

Viva Hoffman is one of Andy Warhol’s superstars. He gave her the name Viva before the release of her first motion picture. An early pioneer of video art, she appeared in and cocreated many of the famous Warhol films, among them The Loves of Ondine, Tub Girls, and Nude Restaurant. She has also acted in movies including Cleopatra, Midnight Cowboy, and Play It Again, Sam, and her acting career has been honored by the Cinémathèque Française. She was a frequent guest at the Factory and a resident of the Chelsea Hotel. It was Viva with whom Warhol was on the phone when Valerie Solanas shot him.

Viva is the author of two books: Superstar, an insider’s look at the Factory, and The Baby, a novel incorporating video art. She also wrote for and edited a variety of publications, including Vanity Fair and the Village Voice. She is the mother of two children and lives in Palm Springs, California, where she paints.