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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
My first introduction to Joan Didion happened to be disastruous one - "The year of magical thinking" was read in one insomniac night and didn't sitt well with me around 4 a.m. so conlusion was to stay away from her,no matter what they say.
Luckily,I was given her collection of essays published in her younger days (1960s) and it was called "Live and learn" in UK. This time around I find her interesting,perceptive and even inspiring - the way she notices "small things" around her,her musings about movies,US society and people around her in general are excellent.In fact I even started to think this is the way I would liked to write had I stay in journalism.
Very good.
Luckily,I was given her collection of essays published in her younger days (1960s) and it was called "Live and learn" in UK. This time around I find her interesting,perceptive and even inspiring - the way she notices "small things" around her,her musings about movies,US society and people around her in general are excellent.In fact I even started to think this is the way I would liked to write had I stay in journalism.
Very good.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
As this is an omnibus, my individual rating breakdowns are as follows:
'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' - 5 ⭐️
'The White Album' - 3.5 ⭐️
'After Henry' - 2.5 ⭐️
~
The edition of my copy has a superlative on the front cover from author Donna Tartt describing Didion's style as "tough, beautiful, surgically precise" for which I can't even muster a more accurate review.
Even in her less invigorating essay subjects, I found a readerly meditation and joy in the way that such topics were described.
Didion has a lot to answer for; I think that the effects of her skill have been grappled with by essayists in the years since. The careful but never tedious balance between the personal, the universal, the compassionate and the objective observer all manage deft employment. For this I will treaure as a reader, and hunger for as a writer.
~
The combining of these three particular volumes seems to me somewhat incongruous in terms of subject matter, but I suspect that the evolution of a writer was the intended goal of the grouping.
'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' - 5 ⭐️
'The White Album' - 3.5 ⭐️
'After Henry' - 2.5 ⭐️
~
The edition of my copy has a superlative on the front cover from author Donna Tartt describing Didion's style as "tough, beautiful, surgically precise" for which I can't even muster a more accurate review.
Even in her less invigorating essay subjects, I found a readerly meditation and joy in the way that such topics were described.
Didion has a lot to answer for; I think that the effects of her skill have been grappled with by essayists in the years since. The careful but never tedious balance between the personal, the universal, the compassionate and the objective observer all manage deft employment. For this I will treaure as a reader, and hunger for as a writer.
~
The combining of these three particular volumes seems to me somewhat incongruous in terms of subject matter, but I suspect that the evolution of a writer was the intended goal of the grouping.