Scan barcode
keichler's review
3.0
It was okay. This is my first Didion book to read. I would pick up another one for sure, but I won't remember much of this one in a year.
luciiiii's review
4.0
This is the second book I have read of Joan Didion. While I am incredibly unaware of most of the cultural references, I am in awe of her writing. I love reading collections of works, I love the tone of this book and I love all she has to say. I feel incredibly inspired to work on my own writing now but, much like Joan has experienced herself, I am fearful of never achieving the level of insight and power that Joan can illicit in her readers.
david_p1's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
Great collection of essays and stories. A lot to chew on and consider, covering an array of topics. A few of my favorite quotes/passages below:
“We are all from somewhere. And it’s the artists job to question the values that went into making of that somewhere… when disquiet rattles the cage of the quotidian” (xviii)
“What Didion sought was naturalness of expression as controlled by a true understanding of one’s craft, the better to describe the ineffable, the uncanny in the everyday.” (xxxiii)
“Make a place available to the eyes, and in certain ways it is no longer available to the imagination.” (22)
“Of course my mother and father wanted me to be happy, and of course the expected that happiness would necessarily entail accomplishment, but the terms of that accomplishment were my affair.” (27)
“Finding one’s own role at 17 is problem enough, without being handed somebody else’s script.” (29)
“In short my attention was always on the periphery, on what I could see and touch, on the butter, and the Greyhound bus.” (48)
“I write entirely to find out what in thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” (49)
“Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year they were mentioned.” (50)
“The very grammar of a Hemingway sentence dictated, or was dictated by, a certain way of looking at the world, a way of looking but not joining, a way of moving through, but not attaching, a kind of romantic individualism distinctly adapted to its time and source.” (103)
“We are all from somewhere. And it’s the artists job to question the values that went into making of that somewhere… when disquiet rattles the cage of the quotidian” (xviii)
“What Didion sought was naturalness of expression as controlled by a true understanding of one’s craft, the better to describe the ineffable, the uncanny in the everyday.” (xxxiii)
“Make a place available to the eyes, and in certain ways it is no longer available to the imagination.” (22)
“Of course my mother and father wanted me to be happy, and of course the expected that happiness would necessarily entail accomplishment, but the terms of that accomplishment were my affair.” (27)
“Finding one’s own role at 17 is problem enough, without being handed somebody else’s script.” (29)
“In short my attention was always on the periphery, on what I could see and touch, on the butter, and the Greyhound bus.” (48)
“I write entirely to find out what in thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” (49)
“Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year they were mentioned.” (50)
“The very grammar of a Hemingway sentence dictated, or was dictated by, a certain way of looking at the world, a way of looking but not joining, a way of moving through, but not attaching, a kind of romantic individualism distinctly adapted to its time and source.” (103)
sperpe's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
2.75
Only a few of the articles actually interested me. Some of them were too rooted in the American culture to be fully appreciated by a European. Also I found the writing style at times unnecessarily intricate.