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i know i finished this book but i have no clue what happened in it ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ my first didion, i guess i was expecting amazing things and while i do love her narrative voice it wasn’t the most interesting read. also there are so many californian references that i feel like you have to be californian to understand
The clarity of Didion's voice is obviously very impressive. I think as a journalist she is providing an incisive view into the American psyche. Reading it now, these first hand accounts are very preferable to the collective nostalgia that has consumed the period of US and California history this depicts. As a collection, it all hangs together pretty loosely, which is my only real complaint. One of those books that strikes me as more important for what it represents than what it accomplishes. I'm looking forward reading further.
i love the way joan didion writes about california, so detailed and intimate to the point where i miss my home and family there, even when she's describing another town. "the california we are talking about resembles eden" i am so full of love for california.
also "i hurt the people i cared about, insulted those i did not. i cut myself off from the one person who was closer to me than any other. i cried until i was not even aware i was crying and when i was not, cried in elevators and taxis and laundries" is way too applicable to me
also "i hurt the people i cared about, insulted those i did not. i cut myself off from the one person who was closer to me than any other. i cried until i was not even aware i was crying and when i was not, cried in elevators and taxis and laundries" is way too applicable to me
informative
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
medium-paced
i thought this book was really quite phenomenal. i was impressed by the white album -- which is why i gave this other classic a shot-- but i think slouching towards bethlehem slightly blows it out of the water.
i'm a big hater of travel literature: there's something awful (to me) about recounting places for the sake of recounting them -- almost like a striking an item off a checklist -- because of how distant it feels. in all fairness, this is probably because the minimal travel literature i've been exposed to has the writer chronicling their experience through the depiction of a landscape, a collection of the sounds (languages AND dialects included, of course), and maybe one or two anecdotes of the people there. it just seems clinical to me, and i read to feel more so than to catalogue.
there's also that frustrating thing about travel writers being very much a visitor in the space they write about, which (unjustly but undoubtedly) makes me feel like they're writing about a real place with the same approach as one might try to flesh out a fantasy setting.
because so much of didion's writing has to do with either california (and occasionally new york), she speaks with a firm sense of ownership, and there is a resultant earnestness in her writing that elevates it. i can't pretend to know why this is the case, but the book oozes sincerity. I'm not a fan of non-fiction at all, but this collection of "geographical" but personally involved writing punctuated by self-focused essays that are in equal parts honest and critical has firmly converted me to a didion-head
i think this book is wonderful, and have it mentally shelved as my accidental but continuing education on the terrible (in both senses of the word) west coast.
i'm a big hater of travel literature: there's something awful (to me) about recounting places for the sake of recounting them -- almost like a striking an item off a checklist -- because of how distant it feels. in all fairness, this is probably because the minimal travel literature i've been exposed to has the writer chronicling their experience through the depiction of a landscape, a collection of the sounds (languages AND dialects included, of course), and maybe one or two anecdotes of the people there. it just seems clinical to me, and i read to feel more so than to catalogue.
there's also that frustrating thing about travel writers being very much a visitor in the space they write about, which (unjustly but undoubtedly) makes me feel like they're writing about a real place with the same approach as one might try to flesh out a fantasy setting.
because so much of didion's writing has to do with either california (and occasionally new york), she speaks with a firm sense of ownership, and there is a resultant earnestness in her writing that elevates it. i can't pretend to know why this is the case, but the book oozes sincerity. I'm not a fan of non-fiction at all, but this collection of "geographical" but personally involved writing punctuated by self-focused essays that are in equal parts honest and critical has firmly converted me to a didion-head
i think this book is wonderful, and have it mentally shelved as my accidental but continuing education on the terrible (in both senses of the word) west coast.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Not every essay in this collection was a win for me, and I skimmed though or skipped over a few, but the ones that did hit hit hard. Favorites here are:
Where the Kissing Never Stops
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
On Keeping a Notebook
Rock of Ages
Los Angeles Notebook
Goodbye to All That
Where the Kissing Never Stops
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
On Keeping a Notebook
Rock of Ages
Los Angeles Notebook
Goodbye to All That
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced