A review by angeluhxx
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

4.0

this book was first published in the year my mother was born. at 23, i picked this up for the first time, and i have a feeling i'll be coming back to it over and over again. i want to be able to think like Didion, to see the world through her eyes. most of all i was struck by how tangible Didion's love for the land was. she illuminates a collective yearning for the past and breathes such life into the places that she describes, from the eden-like golden valleys of California to the unexpected beauty in the isolation of Alcatraz. the malevolent dryness of the Santa Ana wind, the fallen mansions of Newport. the sense of wonder from being young in New York—and growing out of it. the personal notes I also loved. there was a fair amount of name-dropping, which makes sense because she was writing about the culture after all, and i think i would be even more attached to this collection had i been born in her generation — nonetheless, after reading these essays, i completely understand why her work is so widely beloved.