A review by margedalloway
Where I Was From by Joan Didion

2.0

Two stars is rather miserly, but not undeserved. The main problem is that the quality of the book is in direct proportion to how directly Didion is writing about herself. In the earlier historical portions of the book Didion is quite awkward in how she integrates the sources into the fabric of her narrative, and whilst I found the use of literary criticism as its own form of story-telling quite interesting, her observations are rather shallow. The last section of the book is quite brilliant and makes the memoir worth reading, despite its stiltedness. This book might be better suited as a dialogue between herself and a reader who already knows and loves California, rather than as a memoir of both Didion and her home state for anyone unfamiliar with Sacramento to read, sadly I fall into the latter category and it does not come off for me.