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A review by elfs29
A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Didion writes with incredible precision — the formation of Grace’s character through her observation of Charlotte is cleverly constructed, and the intersections between their personal conflicts and the political backdrop are never arbitrary. Didion’s women have a tendency to stick in my mind, unfortunately so do her men, but I don’t think I’ll forget this story and how deftly Didion asks about character, about truth, about what we remember and what we see and whether one can ever be a true witness to someone else.
The question of Charlotte Douglas has never been ‘settled’ for me. Never ‘decided’. I know how to make models of life itself, DNA, TNA, helices double and single and squared, but I try to make a model of Charlotte Douglas’s character and I see only a shimmer. Like the shimmer of the oil slick on the boulevards after rain in Progresso.
The question of Charlotte Douglas has never been ‘settled’ for me. Never ‘decided’. I know how to make models of life itself, DNA, TNA, helices double and single and squared, but I try to make a model of Charlotte Douglas’s character and I see only a shimmer. Like the shimmer of the oil slick on the boulevards after rain in Progresso.