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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
4.5 stars. Such excellent writing that is clear and sharp and smart without being pompous.
Favorites:
Comrade Laski, CPUSA (M-L)
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
On Keeping a Notebook
On Self-Respect
Going Home
Notes from a Native Daughter
Goodbye to All That
I’m giving this 3.5 stars. The essays I liked, I really liked. This is my first time reading Joan Didion, and I quite enjoy her matter-of-factness and the way she can find, or at least suggest, relationships between seemingly unrelated things. However, I don’t know if this worked for me in some of the other essays. While I did find this an effective portrait of California in the 60s, or just mid-century America in general, so many of the references went over my head, even when I did a Google search for aforementioned person or media. This isn’t really Joan Didion’s fault, it’s more mine, but it definitely prevented some of these essays from fully impacting me. I also found her surprisingly cynical. Sometimes this felt warranted and other times it made me bristle a bit. I definitely need to read more of her work to really Get it. This was good, though. All the essays listed above are worth the read, especially On Self-Respect.
Comrade Laski, CPUSA (M-L)
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
On Keeping a Notebook
On Self-Respect
Going Home
Notes from a Native Daughter
Goodbye to All That
I’m giving this 3.5 stars. The essays I liked, I really liked. This is my first time reading Joan Didion, and I quite enjoy her matter-of-factness and the way she can find, or at least suggest, relationships between seemingly unrelated things. However, I don’t know if this worked for me in some of the other essays. While I did find this an effective portrait of California in the 60s, or just mid-century America in general, so many of the references went over my head, even when I did a Google search for aforementioned person or media. This isn’t really Joan Didion’s fault, it’s more mine, but it definitely prevented some of these essays from fully impacting me. I also found her surprisingly cynical. Sometimes this felt warranted and other times it made me bristle a bit. I definitely need to read more of her work to really Get it. This was good, though. All the essays listed above are worth the read, especially On Self-Respect.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
Ok, NEARLY finished but the library needed it back....
reflective
medium-paced
This collection of essays was great; the very last essay, “Goodbye to All That,” was just unforgettable.
reflective
slow-paced
such beautiful prose, joan didion is instantly one of my favorite authors. adore how she writes about the sixties in california and the care she put into each essay, such an insight, such a talent.