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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
Was hoping to love this but unfortunately was not interested in the topic or really even the writing.
“on keeping a notebook” and “on self respect” are my favorites from these essays. i might’ve enjoyed reading this even more than “the white album” because i thought the collection was more cohesive altogether. i wish i could have a conversation with her !
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
You either get Joan Didion or you don’t!!!! I loved let me tell you what I mean a little more but there are certain pieces in this one that hit differently at this stage of life. I also loved how Joan talked about New York in “Goodbye to all That” but recommend these to the girls in their 20’s: “On Keeping a Notebook,” “On Self-Respect,” “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream,” and “Goodbye to All That”
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
didn't enjoy every essay and in fact found a lot of them pointless but joan didion's writing is just so magnetic that even in an uninteresting story i found something to cling to. highlights for me were goodbye to all that and all the personals! genuinely think they shifted something in me a little bit
I’d actually give this book 3 1/2 stars, but alas, Goodreads and its lack of nuance. I rounded down because for every breathtaking essay there were three mind-bogglingly boring ones. Joan Didion is indeed a master of the genre, and if I were Eve Babitz, I would want to be a writer after reading her too, but I guess I’m just not that interested in white people intellectualizing being from California. I’m also not that interested in white people editorializing on things like morality. Sorry.
Ultimately, I’m into Joan as a writer myself, but not too much as a reader.
Ultimately, I’m into Joan as a writer myself, but not too much as a reader.
“Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.”
loved didion’s writing but wished i cared more about LA! favourite essays include ‘slouching towards bethlehem’, ‘on keeping a notebook’, ‘on self-respect’, ‘on going home’ and ‘goodbye to all that’. enjoyed the personal essays most and wish it had more of those.