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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
If you like Joan Didion and you’re in the mood for short reflections this is a good and fast read.
Not a novel, Joan Didion’s South and West consists of notes from a road trip through Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana in the 1970s, and a brief complementary essay on life in California.
The U.S. South has its own distinct personality: it’s seen as hot, humid, often poor, racist, steeped in its own sense of history, which imbues a sense of itself in a way that runs counter to what most see as social progress. Didion does nothing to dispel that view of the South.
To those who live outside the U.S. (and, perhaps, to those in other parts of that country), the South does not come across well, even today. It’s impossible to read this and not refer to recent occasions where the South has thrust itself into recent American politics, never in a good way. It feels as though little has changed (there’s a great line about how in the South the Civil War just happened and the past 10 years feels like 300 years ago).
Didion is an outsider, and does not like what she sees. I don't either, but a lack of empathy runs through this book. Urban peers at rural; the well-off and educated looks down on the poor and uneducated. A scene involving a visit to a laundromat comes across as wholly accurate in capturing trailer park life and the lack of human potential. It feels accurate but also mean-spirited.
The book finishes with a description of California, where Didion resides, a place of wealth, education (or at least, scholarships) and better weather, though also earthquakes.
California is a coda; the heart of this book lies in the South. The descriptions are visceral, incredibly well written considering this book is a collection of notes. There is a lack of empathy, but that lack of interest is, I think, one of the points of the book.
The U.S. South has its own distinct personality: it’s seen as hot, humid, often poor, racist, steeped in its own sense of history, which imbues a sense of itself in a way that runs counter to what most see as social progress. Didion does nothing to dispel that view of the South.
To those who live outside the U.S. (and, perhaps, to those in other parts of that country), the South does not come across well, even today. It’s impossible to read this and not refer to recent occasions where the South has thrust itself into recent American politics, never in a good way. It feels as though little has changed (there’s a great line about how in the South the Civil War just happened and the past 10 years feels like 300 years ago).
Didion is an outsider, and does not like what she sees. I don't either, but a lack of empathy runs through this book. Urban peers at rural; the well-off and educated looks down on the poor and uneducated. A scene involving a visit to a laundromat comes across as wholly accurate in capturing trailer park life and the lack of human potential. It feels accurate but also mean-spirited.
The book finishes with a description of California, where Didion resides, a place of wealth, education (or at least, scholarships) and better weather, though also earthquakes.
California is a coda; the heart of this book lies in the South. The descriptions are visceral, incredibly well written considering this book is a collection of notes. There is a lack of empathy, but that lack of interest is, I think, one of the points of the book.
"Notes" is the important word in this title. The jokes about, "I'd read (fill in an author's name) grocery list," is appropriate here. Really, at $22 list, $12 at amazon, and $10 on kindle, get a copy from your library - you can read this easily in 2 days, if not 1. Small volume, few pages, large print. The section on CA (1976, Patty Hearst), is about 25 pp, and adds a bit about the author as a youth. Nothing more, and next to nothing about Hearst. Which is probably why she did not write the article she was planning.
The section about the South, NOLA through parts of Mississippi and Alabama, seem to have been published now in order to show us that not much has changed since 1970. I do like Didion's stark prose, her supposed "objectivity", her picking out of the small detail that means so much more - but you do have to be aboard with her POV and opinion to find it agreeable.
The section about the South, NOLA through parts of Mississippi and Alabama, seem to have been published now in order to show us that not much has changed since 1970. I do like Didion's stark prose, her supposed "objectivity", her picking out of the small detail that means so much more - but you do have to be aboard with her POV and opinion to find it agreeable.
reflective
Bought and read this while in Florida. Not actually the south but it was still a good context.
“In the South they are convinced that they have bloodied their place with history. In the West we do not believe that anything we do can bloody the land, or change it, or touch it.” nice.
REVERSE CARDED HER ASS! listened to this as i drove to my new apartment in California, after spending my only 24 years in southern Louisiana. poor then, even poorer now. naturally, i feel defensive when a middle class white woman visits MY HOME, the place that many of my loved ones have no feasible alternatives to, and in essence yells “EW get me out of here right now”. but, of course, this particular lady is Joan Didion, so there are thoughtful insights and important contexts and a fair amount of vibrancy to the writing. i DID grow up in the south as “an eccentric, full of anger,” just as she says she would have. DING DING DING!!!
choppy and disembodied, but a worthy listen if you find yourself making this particular drive. kinda lost me at the Patty Hearst stuff on account of I Am Too Young For All That.
REVERSE CARDED HER ASS! listened to this as i drove to my new apartment in California, after spending my only 24 years in southern Louisiana. poor then, even poorer now. naturally, i feel defensive when a middle class white woman visits MY HOME, the place that many of my loved ones have no feasible alternatives to, and in essence yells “EW get me out of here right now”. but, of course, this particular lady is Joan Didion, so there are thoughtful insights and important contexts and a fair amount of vibrancy to the writing. i DID grow up in the south as “an eccentric, full of anger,” just as she says she would have. DING DING DING!!!
choppy and disembodied, but a worthy listen if you find yourself making this particular drive. kinda lost me at the Patty Hearst stuff on account of I Am Too Young For All That.
Really enjoyed Joan Didion's crisp writing. Perfect book to come back from a reading block. Very interesting perspective to discover as I am a European reader.
cute but i kinda dont care about the US idk why i picked this up...
Fairly light reading, but with a few good, quotable passages. Perhaps I would like it better if I were a devotee of the author's writings or if I shared her class and upbringing. Still, it has interesting comparison points to Blue Highways.
I ate this one up in like two days. I think I’m going to read it again, I love seeing the world from ms didions eyes❤️