nialexieva 's review for:

South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion

4.0

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god, there is something so comforting in Joan Didion's cold prose that I have never been able to find in another author. Even though a lot of this book affects topics that are so far away temporally and geographically from me, that I don't always understand the dimension of her evaluation, there were still so many moments that made me almost teary eyed. And it's literally just quotes and notes from her travels in the South. There's something about Didion's insistence on trying to understand herself in relation to her surroundings, trying to analyse the sense of difference and bewilderment expeirenced upon encountering that which she do not know. Her constant questioning, analysis of details that constitute the true reality of people, that most will likely always overlook. Her way of moving through the world and thinking of it are so special and precious to me and it makes me so deeply sad to know that there is a finite number now of her accounts. Her loss is something I genuinely deeply mourn to this day and it's already been almost two years... maybe it's time to reread year of magical thinking again for the 6th time.