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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
if it wasn’t ignorant, it was boring. nothing about this collection was even remotely coherent or possessing some sort of tangible central idea. there was also a hint of skillful writing in the beginning that was quickly obscured by half baked republicanisms. I’ll give her fiction a chance but as of rn I cannot understand the hype around this woman
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
The seminal centerpiece of Didion's non fiction work, The White Album - like the Beatles self titled- is a towering revival of the bygone. A eulogy for a languid 10 years after the 60's turmoil burnt out. In it's impressive collection of newspaper columns and sprawling essays the ineffable is atomized. Time exposed for both the cyclical nature of its social motifs and the oscillating political sweeps that punctuate its flow abruptly.
In this vital (and wholly superior)sequel to ''Slouching Towards Bethlehem'', her voice is more concise. The batting average higher and consequentially, the mood more engrossing. Whether it be recounting a spirited debate about Nat Turner at Sammy Davis, Jr's house between Ossie Davis & William Stryton(with an annoyed James freaking Baldwin as witness!) Or describing Californian aqueducts or the imposing stone walls of the Getty, a reverence for her country outlines each line with an enchanting equamnity. Making turning the page more rewarding the more you do so.
Working as a fascinating time capsule for the quite that came after the 60's storm, ''The White Album'' is a memoir of sorts about the woman who wrote it: her thoughts on the burgeoning third wave feminism of that time, her contemporaries and fears. A vacation to Hawaii is the string a tenuous marriage holds onto for dear life, the Santa Ana winds an ominous conflagration completing the razing prophecy the Manson murders would seal.
To read the white albums is to gain the unique privilege of watching an epoch condescend through the sum of its part into a prismatic omen. One that endures due to the predictable methods with which we destroy ourselves. For the Beatles the white album was the demon exorcised, a muse for murder - but Joan Didion's sequel mourns what has been lost. Observing within the times recalcitrant disorder the remaining ruins from which it all can be rebuilt. Ultimately baring in its discontent peregrination a disparate thesis that dispels the mendacious myths of our collective pasts.
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Essays separate rankings-
1. The White Album -5/5
2. James Pike - 3.5/5
3. Holy Water -3/5
4. Many Mansions -3/5
5. The Getty - 4/5
6. Bureaucrats -2/5
7. Good Citizen - 4/5
8. Notes Towards a Dreampolik- 4.5/5
9. The Womens Movement -3/5
10. Doris Lessing -3/5
11. Georgia O'Keeffe -3.5/5
12. in the islands -4/5
13. in Hollywood -5/5
14. in bed -4.5/5
15. on the road -3/5
16. on the mall-2/5
17.in bogota- 3/5
18. at the dam- 3.5/5
19. on the morning after the 60's- 4/5
20. quiet days in malibu - 5/5
In this vital (and wholly superior)sequel to ''Slouching Towards Bethlehem'', her voice is more concise. The batting average higher and consequentially, the mood more engrossing. Whether it be recounting a spirited debate about Nat Turner at Sammy Davis, Jr's house between Ossie Davis & William Stryton(with an annoyed James freaking Baldwin as witness!) Or describing Californian aqueducts or the imposing stone walls of the Getty, a reverence for her country outlines each line with an enchanting equamnity. Making turning the page more rewarding the more you do so.
Working as a fascinating time capsule for the quite that came after the 60's storm, ''The White Album'' is a memoir of sorts about the woman who wrote it: her thoughts on the burgeoning third wave feminism of that time, her contemporaries and fears. A vacation to Hawaii is the string a tenuous marriage holds onto for dear life, the Santa Ana winds an ominous conflagration completing the razing prophecy the Manson murders would seal.
To read the white albums is to gain the unique privilege of watching an epoch condescend through the sum of its part into a prismatic omen. One that endures due to the predictable methods with which we destroy ourselves. For the Beatles the white album was the demon exorcised, a muse for murder - but Joan Didion's sequel mourns what has been lost. Observing within the times recalcitrant disorder the remaining ruins from which it all can be rebuilt. Ultimately baring in its discontent peregrination a disparate thesis that dispels the mendacious myths of our collective pasts.
---------------------------
Essays separate rankings-
1. The White Album -5/5
2. James Pike - 3.5/5
3. Holy Water -3/5
4. Many Mansions -3/5
5. The Getty - 4/5
6. Bureaucrats -2/5
7. Good Citizen - 4/5
8. Notes Towards a Dreampolik- 4.5/5
9. The Womens Movement -3/5
10. Doris Lessing -3/5
11. Georgia O'Keeffe -3.5/5
12. in the islands -4/5
13. in Hollywood -5/5
14. in bed -4.5/5
15. on the road -3/5
16. on the mall-2/5
17.in bogota- 3/5
18. at the dam- 3.5/5
19. on the morning after the 60's- 4/5
20. quiet days in malibu - 5/5
medium-paced
I like the way she talks about memories - feels pretty dreamlike. I do fear as read though, like waking up from sleep, I tend to forget whatever she is focusing on.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Joannnn I love you so much.
I'll forever be fascinated by the death of the American sixties.
Didion, over ~220 pages of reflective essays, attempts to work out how to assassinate a decade, & kind of inevitably she only gets so far. But I'd be lying a lot if I didn't say that the title essay, the one about apocalyptic doomsday cults & the one about mall sociology aren't each going to stick with me for a long time. A, B, & C.
Didion, over ~220 pages of reflective essays, attempts to work out how to assassinate a decade, & kind of inevitably she only gets so far. But I'd be lying a lot if I didn't say that the title essay, the one about apocalyptic doomsday cults & the one about mall sociology aren't each going to stick with me for a long time. A, B, & C.
not my fave didion work but i liked the sojourns section
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced