Attempted Preservation of the Glittering Self

By Brent Henry

Three men - or maybe one man, glimpsed three times - are trying to hold themselves together in a world that keeps finding new ways to pull them apart. Attempted Preservation of the Glittering Self is a triptych of one-act plays about the strange, funny, and occasionally cosmologically catastrophic work of trying to remain, somehow, yourself-in a world dominated by systems built, with great precision and for great profit, to ensure you never do.

Lioness II:

An adult novelty store in Times Square must reinvent itself by doubling as a trendy restaurant to stay afloat, while a seemingly ordinary dinner date spirals toward an impossible revelation

Goodbye Cat Gentleman:

A recent divorc attempts to re-enter the dating world, but an obsession with Delia's catalogs from the 1990s threatens to consume his future before he can escape his past

Fracture's Void:

After losing his job at an AI start-up, a man receives an impossible opportunity: to travel back in time and reverse the worst decision of his life-backing out of a Craigslist vampire conversion in a JCPenney parking lot on October 10th, 2010. Instead, he uncovers a truth so devastating it transcends death itself.

Framed by a critical introduction from the oracular sub-underground poet Calder Penn, these three plays can be read separately or together. Each play stands entirely on its own or can be seen collectively as the life of a singular person appearing chronologically across time. In Attempted Preservation of the Glittering Self, the questions are profound, the stakes are real, but the trilogy is optional.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H6PTTWY8
• ISBN13: 9798998805578
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Zabriskie Point Press
• Length: 110 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"