Once part of New York City's literary brat pack, in league with Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney while hanging out with Andy Warhol and Lou Reed, Tama Janowitz here looks at the events that took her from 1980s Manhattan to the Upstate hamlet where she lives now. Almost broke, almost divorced, raising a daughter while caring for her ailing mother and making peace with her eccentric father, she tries to absorb the strange mythos and culture of her new home, which, though only a few hours north of the city, might as well be on a different planet. Freely traversing memory, time, and place, Scream is a testament to Janowitz's precision, her humor, and her capacity for soul searching.