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crissy_estev's review against another edition
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.0
taelerk's review against another edition
3.0
I was very excited to read my first Didion and a little intimidated. I see why she is considered one of the greats, for I believe it is the way she thinks and analyzes the world that is most interesting about her.
It was a little dry of a read for me and at some points hard for me to understand what she was saying. I was born so far from the time she is describing a lot of it is lost on me. However, I particularly loved the section Sojourns. It was the most personal she got in the book, while still keeping an eye on the world around her. The Women's Movement section was hard for me to get through.
It was a little dry of a read for me and at some points hard for me to understand what she was saying. I was born so far from the time she is describing a lot of it is lost on me. However, I particularly loved the section Sojourns. It was the most personal she got in the book, while still keeping an eye on the world around her. The Women's Movement section was hard for me to get through.
jashegerova's review against another edition
5.0
what an absolute joy. Didion has a way with words that Really Is Quite Something. makes you want to move to Cali and listen to the doors.
shimmery's review against another edition
5.0
‘We tell ourselves stories in order to live... We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.
So begins the first essay, The White Album, which gives this collection its name. The fantastic thing about Didion, however, is that she does not impose herself or her ‘narrative line’ on the world around her. Whilst she is undoubtedly an eccentric character, her awareness of both herself and the flaws of narrative mean that she approaches situations with an open mind, ready to report what she finds as opposed to arriving with a preconception of what she thinks she will find and building a story around that.
The essays here are about the 60s and their aftermath and cover a diverse range of topics — she writes about the Manson murders, the women’s movement, The Doors, but also other things she is fascinated by that are discussed less — how water is moved around California, or an orchid breeder.
Her intelligence and style is so evident throughout; it’s the kind of book that you finish knowing you’ll have to reread it to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
So begins the first essay, The White Album, which gives this collection its name. The fantastic thing about Didion, however, is that she does not impose herself or her ‘narrative line’ on the world around her. Whilst she is undoubtedly an eccentric character, her awareness of both herself and the flaws of narrative mean that she approaches situations with an open mind, ready to report what she finds as opposed to arriving with a preconception of what she thinks she will find and building a story around that.
The essays here are about the 60s and their aftermath and cover a diverse range of topics — she writes about the Manson murders, the women’s movement, The Doors, but also other things she is fascinated by that are discussed less — how water is moved around California, or an orchid breeder.
Her intelligence and style is so evident throughout; it’s the kind of book that you finish knowing you’ll have to reread it to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
iemegosh's review against another edition
2.0
i’m sorry but I CANNOT WITH THIS WOMAN i cannot pretend to like this any longer i hate i hate i hate i only liked the one about georgia okeefe and some other one that i don’t remember