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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
"It occurred to me almost constantly in the South that had I lived there I would have been an eccentric and full of anger, and I wondered what form the anger would have taken. Would I have taken up causes, or would I have simply knifed somebody?"
Knowing that the book is a collection of scraps and notes that never made it to a completed essay is a double edged sword. It's fascinating to see her plant the seeds of stories and essays (and it's easy to think on how she could've spun out the couple of interviews into larger form) and that her writing style is ever present even in a truncated format but ultimately this is slightly frustrating that we never got a finished, polished essay out of either parts of this. Frustrating aside it's a short, fun read.
This wasn’t for me. She just sounded so pretentious.
A short book to follow up 1056 pages of Norman Mailer.
The long section on the road trip through the South is good, the section about California feels a bit more disjointed.
I did really enjoy it, but I saw another review on here that said this really read like it was from a notebook and not originally intended for publication, and I agree. It read like it was nearly a magazine piece, but not quite.
Enjoyable though and you really feel like you're actually in the South with Joan Didion.
The long section on the road trip through the South is good, the section about California feels a bit more disjointed.
I did really enjoy it, but I saw another review on here that said this really read like it was from a notebook and not originally intended for publication, and I agree. It read like it was nearly a magazine piece, but not quite.
Enjoyable though and you really feel like you're actually in the South with Joan Didion.
adventurous
informative
reflective
fast-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Made me feel a certain way
“Weather would come in on the radar - and be bad”
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
I don’t really understand why this was published. It’s a little unnerving to read Didion unsure of herself, unable to connect the images she is copying down. Her voice is still present but slightly garbled. There were plenty of striking passages and interesting insights, which is why it gets 3 stars. But I don’t feel like I learned anything about her process by reading these notes. Maybe just that she starts with specificity—collects images before putting them together.