Rebecca Novack grew up in the Rocky Mountains and received a master’s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity school. Now, she’s releasing her debut novel, Murder Bimbo.
Murder Bimbo follows a sex worker recruited into a covert political assassination, who is left to fend for herself once the job is done. Hiding in the woods with only days to survive, she races to control her story through a feminist podcast and a series of increasingly unreliable emails, forcing readers to question truth, power, and who gets to be disposable.
We asked Novack to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could learn about the books that shaped her life and influenced her debut novel.
What was the first book you were obsessed with as a child?
Mister Dog by Margaret Wise Brown. Published in 1952, it’s the story of a dog who belongs to himself who meets a boy who belongs to himself and they move in together. The food illustrations are incredible, and the sentiment laid the groundwork for my second major life philosophy, courtesy of Kevin McCallister: when I grow up and get married, I’m living alone.
What book helped you through puberty?
Without a doubt, Jurassic Park. I find nothing more relaxing than when the plot of a book is science or math explained slowly. Plus, there are dinosaurs! I’m always looking for a perfect Michael Crichton smell-alike.
What book do you wish 18-year-old you had read?
Orientalism by Edward Said. I know a lot of queer people wish they had books with characters that looked more like them. But I have such a bad attitude that I would have found a way to feel excluded by a book about myself! What kept my brain company instead was analysis. And at 18 I was really obsessed with the question “what’s up with white Buddhists?” I think I would have really lapped up some postcolonial theory.
If you were to teach a class on Damn Good Writing, what books would make the syllabus?
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdich, Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh, City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter, Fox 8 by George Saunders. Then there would be a spin-off group chat where we just talked about Patrick Radden Keefe and David Graeber and how the heck Maya Angelou did it. The one thing all of these books/authors have in common is when you read them you feel the author really having fun with the writing. You always get to a point where you think “Holy crap, now she’s cooking with gas!”
What books helped guide you while writing your book?
Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl made me feel delighted, then so implicated I was embarrassed, then delighted again. That was one of the original seeds of Murder Bimbo. Don DeLillo’s White Noise helped me get the patter. George Saunders taught me to commit to the bit. Alexander Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel raised my standards for myself. Angelou’s Gather Together in My Name taught me to take myself less seriously. Eleanor Catton’s Birnham Wood is where I realized I should be satirizing all the characters, not just one political faction. Paul Auster’s City of Glass taught me to take a break, imagine the world weirder, and go back in.
What books are on your nightstand now?
Eugene by Jackie Ess, Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and everything Tolstoy on theanarchistlibrary.org. Actually, I asked my household all these questions and got a new reading list. Top of the stack is Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block. I co-founded a small irl book club with Caitlin Doughty, and for next month, we’re reading The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso, so that’s there, too.