Reviews - Slouching Towards Bethlehem

3.73k reviews for:

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Joan Didion

4.12 AVERAGE

zinedine's review

3.0

informative reflective medium-paced

"Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point"
Oh how I loved this book and everything about it - I read it after watching "The Center will not hold" and discovering Joan Didion. I'd heard about her, I guess, but I hadn't realized until then how at heart I would take everything. She made me want to go back to Los Angeles and feel its hard-to-love magic again. The more journalistic essays were compelling and beautifully written; and of course, the personal ones were my favourites and resonated with the uncertain young woman I still am. Some of her words still resonate with me. "... Deep in the part of my heart where the artificial rain forever falls, that is still the line I want to hear."

morganmcnealy's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

yleegannon's review against another edition

4.25

I love California, people who write about California, and people who really see it for what it is.

buffalomark92's review against another edition

4.5

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

armoore1231's review against another edition

3.0

I wanted to be a 5-star Didion gal, but sometimes life just doesn't work out that way... there are beyond a doubt some 5-star essays in here, and it's bookended by the two very best in my opinion! The ones that weren't didn't land with me because they were either filled with pop culture references too lost on me to frame any connection, or (I'm sorry) too navel-gazey. Joan's got opinions, we love an essay colored by personal experience, but to me some pieces still read narrow rather than expansive, which is at odds with how I wanted to experience the little worlds she explored.

5 stars in my heart Joan, you're one of the good ones.