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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
funny
reflective
medium-paced
I was so terribly sad when I finally finished this book, when it sunk in and felt like it was over. I can't wait to reread it again.
Her writing style to ME at least, is so whimsical and aesthetically pleasing. Joan Didion writes in the way that I daydream, imagine, and think. I can’t explain it any other way.
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Loved this. Fantastic narration from Keaton and it’s just fascinating subject matter. Subjects written about as old as early 60s, to 20 + later. Proves she can write about just about anything I’d be game.
It's hard to honestly review this, since of course this is an essay collection every little ex-Gawker-media nerd is trying to imitate. All of their imitations are bad, in part because this stuff was new more than it was classic, and parts of it are already fading into incomprehensibility. In some ways the most salient parts of these essays are the bits she elides: family history, politics, relationships destroyed, etc. If you aren't commenting on your own history and you aren't commenting on politics and you aren't commenting on culture*, if all of these topics you glance at and then firmly avert your gaze away from, what's left? Observation and aesthetic, and arguably the delusions of a culture that thinks aesthetic passes for moral understanding. Also, car culture propaganda!!! You're ruining the desert with your stupid station wagon, lady!!!
Having said that: riveting narration of one woman's class anxiety and veiled self-loathing via the medium, mostly, of California reportage.
The essay here that makes the most sense is the one about Sacramento, because it's the essay where Didion's whole thing becomes very clarified for an outsider: she's from money but the wrong kind, and her own understanding of her family's position and the betrayed aesthetic thereof carries the book.
Having read that essay, you get it. She reports in on kids doing LSD in San Francisco and you sense relief that she won't be called old money, new money, or anything in between while talking to these people. She sneers at the tackiness of Newport, comparing its gaudy mansions unfavorably to California's own gaudiness, and you understand that she is wielding her insecurity as an offensive tool. She knows what you think of ranchers in Sacramento, and she's here to say you might be right but your gilt ceiling sucks shit anyway.
Anyway, I think it's very funny to put out an essay collection that incisively portrays what a huge asshole you are for 300 pages. Incredible stuff.
* Ostensibly Didion is commenting on culture and that's what makes this collection a classic. I disagree. She is observing culture, which is different.
Having said that: riveting narration of one woman's class anxiety and veiled self-loathing via the medium, mostly, of California reportage.
The essay here that makes the most sense is the one about Sacramento, because it's the essay where Didion's whole thing becomes very clarified for an outsider: she's from money but the wrong kind, and her own understanding of her family's position and the betrayed aesthetic thereof carries the book.
Having read that essay, you get it. She reports in on kids doing LSD in San Francisco and you sense relief that she won't be called old money, new money, or anything in between while talking to these people. She sneers at the tackiness of Newport, comparing its gaudy mansions unfavorably to California's own gaudiness, and you understand that she is wielding her insecurity as an offensive tool. She knows what you think of ranchers in Sacramento, and she's here to say you might be right but your gilt ceiling sucks shit anyway.
Anyway, I think it's very funny to put out an essay collection that incisively portrays what a huge asshole you are for 300 pages. Incredible stuff.
* Ostensibly Didion is commenting on culture and that's what makes this collection a classic. I disagree. She is observing culture, which is different.
reflective
I don't recommend reading these melancholy, elegiac, and nostalgic essays in one go--they'll do your head & sense of well-being in--but damn, Didion can write.
Super enjoyable and readable - it lives up to the hype.