A review by gcviolin
To Write as If Already Dead by Kate Zambreno

5.0

Kate Zambreno's new book beautifully weaves together many interrelated threads into a prismatic and often poetically charged narrative that explores the body, womanhood/motherhood, illnesses both individual and societal, and what it means to "write" and/or "write through" the body.

She covers a lot of ground here, centrally focusing on Herve Guibert and his writing of the body, particularly his own body living with AIDS. She interleaves this with a diaristic chronicling of her difficult second pregnancy, which overlaps with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and New York's lockdown in March/April 2020.

I found Zambreno's discussions of "autofiction" (both via Guibert and via her own work) particularly interesting - the ways our fictionalized selves can both resemble us and become our avatars, taking on characteristics beyond the scope of our off-the-page lives.

Thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for the ARC!