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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
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.
Didion is more interesting when covering a topic than her own life. The title essay put a whole new light on Haight-Ashbury: more Trainspotting than Summer of Love.
I can't believe she wrote these when she was in her 20s and early 30s. Didion makes me not want to stop reading about topics I wouldn't otherwise care about (hippies in San Francisco, a housewife who killed her husband for the insurance money, John Wayne and other old Hollywood stars). I do prefer the more personal essays (on keeping a notebook and the one where she talks about her life in New York were my favorites) but the whole collection is great.
Oh, and I found this gem which she wrote when she was my age: "I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be".
Oh, and I found this gem which she wrote when she was my age: "I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be".
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
One thing about Joan Didion is she will shove California down your throat. This is something that shapes her writing and is simply a fact of her style – if you already find this annoying, perhaps her works will not agree with you.
I, for one, got tired of it around the last 50 pages of this essay collection. This selection has 3 parts, with the second being her Personals, and while it was not a let down ... I think I expected more out of it. Notably, ON SELF-RESPECT is something I would consider a standout, but not by any great margin. I do think that one essay alone is something worth looking up and giving up 5 minutes of your time to read, however.
Truthfully, this did not endear me to Didion's work — but it did not drive me away either. I think Didion writes for a specific audience and unfortunately, I do not always fall under that category, but I believe nonfiction works are necessary to read regardless, one cannot be a well-rounded thinker without immersing themselves in the realities of the world – even though they may not be realities that we can readily relate ourselves to.
With that said, I hope to tackle Didion's other selection of essays later this year, The White Album. Here's to hoping I like it just a tiny bit more.
I, for one, got tired of it around the last 50 pages of this essay collection. This selection has 3 parts, with the second being her Personals, and while it was not a let down ... I think I expected more out of it. Notably, ON SELF-RESPECT is something I would consider a standout, but not by any great margin. I do think that one essay alone is something worth looking up and giving up 5 minutes of your time to read, however.
Truthfully, this did not endear me to Didion's work — but it did not drive me away either. I think Didion writes for a specific audience and unfortunately, I do not always fall under that category, but I believe nonfiction works are necessary to read regardless, one cannot be a well-rounded thinker without immersing themselves in the realities of the world – even though they may not be realities that we can readily relate ourselves to.
With that said, I hope to tackle Didion's other selection of essays later this year, The White Album. Here's to hoping I like it just a tiny bit more.