A new work equal parts observational micro-fiction and cultural criticism reflecting on the dailiness of life as a woman and writer, on fame and failure, aging and art, from the acclaimed author of Heroines, Green Girl, and O Fallen Angel. Divided into two parts, Screen Tests is truly an original collection in the philosophical and innovative tradition of others like Lydia Davis' Varieties of Disturbance, Heidi Julavits' The Folded Clock, and Sarah Manguso's 300 Arguments. In the first half, the narrator (who may or may not be the author) catalogs the world as seen by an expert observer-one who falls down Wikipedia holes and who asks us to look at the way time works on her differently, in particular, differently from the way it works on Amal Clooney. Who wonders what it would be like to meet Susan Sontag at a party, and the purpose of the line between fiction and non. Who regales us with brief swatches from a life lived inside a brilliant mind as she dissects the interiority of closed women, herself among them. With her signature wit and incisive commentary on everything from her name-dropping Buddhist Pilates teacher to the horror films of Bette Davis, Zambreno paints fascinating portraits of people we both know and don't, reminding us that our inner lives are confounding, complex, and universal. The second part of Screen Tests comprises essays about female artists like Barbara Loden, Kathy Acker, and Anne Collier that intersect and chime with the stories that came before them, woven through with familiar names and themes-particularly success and failure, and how to live as a woman and an artist. A trans-genre masterpiece, Screen Tests drives readers into well-known territories in new, vivid language and thought. The collection suggests a new category of writings, made both of the women in Kate Zambreno's world and of one imagined-a world in which we can look at other people and ourselves with acute clarity, and we are lucky to have Zambreno as our guide.
