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whoopiegirlberg2000's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
dunkaccino's review against another edition
4.0
Some of the essays in this collection drag, but then the whole book is held up by the handful of great ones, like the titular essay, the ones about Hollywood, and a few others.
rimamandwee's review against another edition
2.0
After a stint with novels, I was craving a non-fiction piece that scratched my itch to get lost in a feeling of classic Americanah, like a summer drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains with Fleetwood Mac blasting from the speakers. I found it in Joan Didion. Like any book of essays (unless you’re Jia Tolentino), I’m not entranced with the subject of every piece, but it’s nearly impossible not to be captivated by Didion’s language. I find myself falling into her prose like liquid sloshing through a funnel. I’ve never read work that uses such Layman rhetoric while still igniting a muscle memory in me of reading academia. The words she strings together, individually, have simple meaning, but I find myself looping back and forth in her sentences, like I won’t be able to comprehend it without mentally fixing my posture. And like all great books, hers is a work that reminds me that I’ve never had a wholly original thought at all, and if I ever feel lonely, all I need to do is read.