I consider Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album two of the best books of the 20th Century. Didion’s investigatory skills together with her unrelenting analysis makes her writing superb. I read Didion’s “new” collection, Let Me Tell You What I Mean, although the most recent piece in it, “Everywoman.com,” is from 2000. All of the other pieces in this book are from 1968 to 1998.
But, truth be told, these short articles are not Didion’s best work. “Everywoman.com” centers around Martha Stewart. “Last Words” deals with Didion’s assessments of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Norman Mailer.
The essay that struck me most vividly was “Some Women” where Didion talks about Robert Mapplethorpe, the unique photographer. Didion always tends to gravitate toward unconventional situations and people. Are you a Joan Didion fan? GRADE: B+
While I was reading Joan Didion’s new book, I figured I’d watch the Joan Didion documentary on Netflix, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. Didion, her husband John Gregory Dunne, and her adopted daughter Quintana Roo live an unconventional life. Didion and Dunne are constantly writing. Quintana looks happy in a lot of the footage, but later we find out otherwise.
If you’re curious about Joan Didion’s life, this documentary is probably the closest you’re going to get to the truth. GRADE: A-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword Hilton Als vii
Alicia and the Underground Press 3
Getting Serenity 10
A Trip to Xanadu 16
On Being Unchosen by the College of One’s Choice 23
Pretty Nancy 30
Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles 38
Why I Write 45
Telling Stories 58
Some Women 79
The Long-Distance Runner 89
Last Words 99
Everywoman.com 123
Read The White Room and it was okay, but I didn’t like Play It as It Lays. Preferred her husbands novel True Confessions and her brother in law’s writings for Vanity Fair (Dominic Dunne) I might try to catch the documentary though.
Steve, I think Didion’s novels aren’t her strongest writing. You’ll see Dominic Dunne in JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD.
Just watched the documentary on Netflix. Pretty interesting.
Steve, glad you enjoyed JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD. She lived a complicated Life.
I’ve liked a lot of her writing—and I especially liked THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING and BLUE NIGHTS, the first about her widowhood after John Gregory Dunne died, the second about her life after her daughter died (not very long after Dunne). She’s very insightful about grief, but sometimes you feel she’s standing outside herself and making notes rather dispassionately. (Compare those books to Joyce Carol Oates’s WIDOW, which I didn’t like as much as Didion’s writing about losing her husband, but Oates’s grief feels more visceral—even if Oates remarried later and Didion, as far as I know, has not.)
Deb, I get the sense from Didion’s writing that she’s detached from much of the Life she’s living. When Didion asks her daughter whether she was a Good Mother, Quintana answered, “You were okay, but remote.”
My introduction to Didion was PLAY IT AS IT LAYS in the early seventies and I’ve pretty much kept up, although of the books since BLUE NIGHTS I’ve only read the very short SOUTH AND WEST. And though I was aware of THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD the fact that it was on Netflix had somehow escaped me. I’ll definitely watch it soon. Not only is there too much streaming stuff to watch, there’s too much to even keep up with. I agree with Steve about TRUE CONFESSIONS, certainly a good choice for a reread.
Michael, I’m with you on the Too Much To Keep Up With problem. Our DVR is at 48% (mostly Diane’s HALLMARK movies) and we have a Watch List of a dozen movies on HULU, Netflix, HBO, and AMAZON PRIME Video. There are not enough hours in the day to keep up!
You could dump all those extra, expensive channels…
Rick, I’m guessing the Pandemic will require us to hang on to HULU, HBO, Netflix, Disney+, AMAZON PRIME Video, etc. a little bit longer. Movie theaters in Western NY can open on March 5, but Diane and I have ZERO interest in sitting inside a theater for hours with people who may be carrying a coronavirus variant.
I’ve never read her novels but, like you and Deb, am a big fan of her non-fiction. I recently read (I found it in the basement laundry room) her collection Political Fictions (2001) about Reagan, Poppy Bush, and Clinton mostly. Dated but still readable and she is prescient at times. Yes Deb, I always feel she is standing outside herself taking notes. We watched the documentary (THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD) done by her nephew Griffin Dunne last year and enjoyed it a lot. She went through a hell of a lot with the sudden death of her husband and then the tragic death of her daughter, but she is a survivor. Of course, I associate her with Southern California but she lived (lives?) in New York a long time too. Sorry the new book is actually old stuff, but it should be coming from the library soon and I’m sure I’ll enjoy reading it.
Jeff, LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN is a Skinny Little Book that you’ll be able to finish in one day.
Exactly what Deb said. She so often captures my thoughts, it is eerie.
Patti, every Joan Didion essay/article I’ve read has at least one surprise in it. She’s an amazing writer!
“…two of the best books of the 20th Century”? Didion? Surely you’re not serious?
Rick, both THE WHITE ALBUM and SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM are taught in colleges and universities. Joan Didion writes non-fiction at a very high level.