To Write as if Already Dead circles around Kate Zambreno's failed attempts to write a study of Hervé Guibert's To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life. Zambreno, who has been pushing the boundaries of literary form for a decade, investigates Guibert's methods by adopting them, offering a keen sense of the energy and confessional force of his work. This book absorbed me so deeply I left part of myself inside it.