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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
Her notebooks are as inspiring and humbling as her finished essays.
I love these glimpses into her journals and unfiltered thinking. It's a slim book, however, and a deeper selection of her musings would have been welcomed, perhaps providing more of a cohesive narrative arc.
I received a free ARC from Alfred A. Knopf from a Goodreads giveaway.
I received a free ARC from Alfred A. Knopf from a Goodreads giveaway.
I will start by saying I think she's a brilliant writer. No word misplaced. With a sharp efficiency and economy of words and sentences she can convey an image, feeling or emotion so eloquently. But I don't think this should've been my first read of hers.
This is a collection of scrap notes, journal entries, diary excerpts from two writing research trips that she never published. First was a month long road trip through the deep south in the 70s and another was a trip to SF during the Patty Hearst trial.. the conversations and observations she put down on paper are actually quite saying and emotive... but as a collective work compiled in a book, it was very discongruent and random. Maybe because I listened to the audio version, it made it harder to follow... but there's no story, plot, start or finish... it's a series of random writings strung together... and yes as good as the actual writing prowess was, the compilation could've been done much better..
Start with another of her actual books.. that's what I'll be doing next.
This is a collection of scrap notes, journal entries, diary excerpts from two writing research trips that she never published. First was a month long road trip through the deep south in the 70s and another was a trip to SF during the Patty Hearst trial.. the conversations and observations she put down on paper are actually quite saying and emotive... but as a collective work compiled in a book, it was very discongruent and random. Maybe because I listened to the audio version, it made it harder to follow... but there's no story, plot, start or finish... it's a series of random writings strung together... and yes as good as the actual writing prowess was, the compilation could've been done much better..
Start with another of her actual books.. that's what I'll be doing next.
adventurous
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
A collection of vignettes that would otherwise be uninteresting were it not for Didion.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
I did enjoy this but not nearly as much as Didion’s other books. Miami was both more focused and closer to her journalism because it was her notes during a specific deep dive into Miamian politics at the time. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is also more focused, in that it felt (because it was) like each essay had a specific theme and thesis. South and West, by comparison, was really only loosely bound by Didion looking for understanding of a place she didn’t understand well and seemed reluctant to spend the time to get to know. There are repeated references to wanting to hurry up the trip and get back on a plane to California, and it shows in the cursory and judgmental way she approaches her subject of the rural South.
Overall I did feel like I gained something by reading it, but Didion’s perspective here is (a self-aware) outsider uncomfortable in her current environment, and as a result most of the book felt simplistic in a way that was disappointing and left me wanting more, especially in the form of a response from a local.
Overall I did feel like I gained something by reading it, but Didion’s perspective here is (a self-aware) outsider uncomfortable in her current environment, and as a result most of the book felt simplistic in a way that was disappointing and left me wanting more, especially in the form of a response from a local.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
“I am easy here.” Me too.
Such a fascinating confrontation of the past, geography, nature, and connection.
Such a fascinating confrontation of the past, geography, nature, and connection.
Ahhhh Joan Didion. I feel as if people shouldn't be allowed to write reviews of books by writers like her anymore because she is so iconic and classic. Many of her collections of essays dot my library and feel like old friends from college that I sometimes revisit. This brief collection was recommended to me by @sarahpaolan who said "I kept thinking about you the whole time I read it" because so much of it chronicles her notes as she journeyed through the South in June of 1970 for essays she never completed. What follows is an accidental memoir of Didion's reflections on her relation to the South, my favorites were on a previous lover who taught her to cook, and her home in California. My fascination with The Southern Gothic is no secret to most, and Didion tried in earnest to discover what that means. My other favorite exploration of this was her meeting with one of my favorites, Walker Percy. You know Didion is brilliant when her notes are better than most people's finished pieces. It's very brief, it could easily be done in one sitting, but it's a fascinating glimpse into the process of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. If you're a fan of hers, I highly recommend this book. If you've never read any Didion, start with SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM or THE WHITE ALBUM first.
-South and West is something of a revised travel journal that contains her observations and experiences as well as transcribed notes that she took while doing research for her writing
-Her observations can be piercingly sharp when she is faced with prejudice (which she responds to with wit and cynicism), but her clear love and facination with the south is evident in her writing.
-provides incite into her methodology as a literary journalist.
-Didion's has a talent for painting a word picture and her descriptions are emmersive and captivating.
-Her observations can be piercingly sharp when she is faced with prejudice (which she responds to with wit and cynicism), but her clear love and facination with the south is evident in her writing.
-provides incite into her methodology as a literary journalist.
-Didion's has a talent for painting a word picture and her descriptions are emmersive and captivating.
I didn't really enjoy this book, although it was interesting to glimpse the mechanics of a writer's brain - observations, details, dialogue. The book is mainly Didion's notes from a month-long road trip through the South. Many of her observations made me chuckle or shake my head in recognition.
"... the Demopolis police force (nine of them) pouring out 214 gallons of confiscated moonshine."
"The legality or illegality of liquor in the South seems a complication to outsiders, and is scarcely considered by the residents."
"About the cathouse: the notion that an accepted element in the social order is a whorehouse goes hand in hand with the woman on the pedestal."
"... the Demopolis police force (nine of them) pouring out 214 gallons of confiscated moonshine."
"The legality or illegality of liquor in the South seems a complication to outsiders, and is scarcely considered by the residents."
"About the cathouse: the notion that an accepted element in the social order is a whorehouse goes hand in hand with the woman on the pedestal."