Test Pattern: A Novel

· Harper Collins
Ebook
288
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

The arrival of a new TV in a 1950s Virginia household has strange effects on an 11-year-old and her parents in this "fable worthy of The Twilight Zone " ( Glamour ).

"Energetic, imaginative and laugh out loud funny. . . . All the charm of your favorite I Love Lucy re-run mixed with all the supernatural strangeness of an X-Files episode." — Cosmopolitan

When a new TV set arrives in the Palmer household in Newport News, Virginia, in 1954, change is in the wind. Eleven-year-old Cassie discovers that she—and only she—can see glimpses of the future within the hypnotic test pattern: snippets from President Kennedy's assassination, the landing on the moon, the O.J. Simpson trial. Meanwhile, her family goes haywire. Her mother decides to pursue her dream of becoming a famous tap dancer, while her shipyard-worker father plunges into depression.

Brilliantly re-creating the innocence and energy of that time, this magical tale offers a witty reflection on the troubled path to fame, a child's awakening to the world, and the tangled web of the family.

"This surreal mid-century tale of a mom who feels like "Lucy gone bad" and the family left in her wake entertains as surely as a parallel-universe episode of Ozzie and Harriet." — Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Klein's book is more magical realism than science fiction. She expertly conjures the bittersweet story of a blue-collar family in distress of lost dreams and a young girl's coming of age. Test Pattern is a marvelous, clever, and funny and sad novel." — Booklist (starred review)

"I devoured this compelling, funny and bittersweet story. I can't wait for Klein to write another one." —Dave Barry, humor columnist and novelist

The arrival of a new TV in a 1950s Virginia household has strange effects on an 11-year-old and her parents in this "fable worthy of The Twilight Zone " ( Glamour ). "Energetic, imaginative and laugh out loud funny. . . . All the charm of your favorite I Love Lucy re-run mixed with all the super...

Discover more

About the author

Raised in Newport News, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., Marjorie Klein is a freelance writer whose subjects have ranged from Harley-Davidson to the Holocaust Museum, drugs to malls, Lubavitch Jews to retired circus freaks. She has taught creative writing at Florida International University and lives with her husband, Don, in Coconut Grove, Florida.
Raised in Newport News, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., Marjorie Klein is a freelance writer whose subjects have ranged from Harley-Davidson to the Holocaust Museum, drugs to malls, Lubavitch Jews to retired circus freaks. She has taught creative writing at Florida International University and li...

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.