Reformed literary wild child Cat Marnell is blurring the line between fact and fiction in her new novel — and sprinkling in plenty of real downtown fixtures and Page Six references.
The “How to Murder Your Life” author’s upcoming “The Bored and the Beautiful,” focuses on a character named Dizzy who sounds a lot like the glamorous beauty editor who became famous when she flamed out of her job at Jane Pratt’s xoJane to go on a bender.
“It’s half real names and people, half fictional names,” Marnell tells us — naming off numerous New York personalities like actress and fashion plate Julia Fox, rapper Riff Raff, former “The Real Housewives of New York City” star Leah McSweeney, and influencer the Fat Jew — saying “all appear as themselves, while Dizzy’s boyfriends have fictional names.”
Dizzy is described as a “downtown writer with a tabloid presence,” who “pops amphetamine pills like Tic Tacs, drifting between Thai rehabs,” much like Marnell, who first appeared in Page Six in 2012 when she defiantly told us: “I’m always on drugs. Look, I couldn’t spend another summer meeting deadlines behind a computer at night when I could be on the rooftop of Le Bain looking for shooting stars and smoking angel dust with my friends.”
Marnell’s novel starts that same year.
“It’s a period piece,” she told us. “Writing people from that period in my life came naturally to me. They were all part of the tapestry of downtown in 2012.”
“Page Six is in the book a lot,” Marnell added.
Marnell first made a name for herself as a beauty editor for Condé Nast’s now-defunct Lucky magazine and has since written for Vice, Self, Nylon, and Glamour. This is Marnell’s second book following 2016’s hit addiction memoir “How to Murder Your Life.”
The author previously told us, “My memoir reads like an afternoon tea with grandma by comparison.”
The book comes out Feb 2, 2027, from Crown Publishing.
Read the full article here
