There aren't words for how happy I am that you broke through your Joan Didion wall and with this, one of her very best! This straight forward, honest, wrenchingly direct meditation on loss has been a lifeline for me more than once.
Funny you write this because I JUST bought "Democracy" by Joan Didion at a used bookstore. I have other reading priorities at the moment (Crying in H Mart...for a book club, ugh...) but I was intrigued by the premise which is that we don't really elect the best LEADERS, we elect whomever comes up with the best narrative which, given that this was written decades ago, sounds pretty prescient to me.
Apparently we are ALL in our Joan Didion era! Totally feel like we elect the best candidates and not the best people for the job and the whole thing rewards the completely wrong set of skills.
Excellent review! And I am an avid Joan Didion reader, but no judgement; as you say, sometimes you find a book when you need to find it. I, too, am a delicate flower when it comes to reading about grief and all that stuff, but I agree completely with your assessment: Didion's book is not sentimental, somehow, and she manages to bring the journalistic approach to something so personal. If you're looking for her fiction, I would definitely read 'Play it as it Lays' for its scalpel-like prose, and 'The White Album' (or any of her essay collections, really, are amazing). The Netflix documentary is also brilliantl watching. If you need any more convincing, I wrote a whole newsletter on her: https://anarrativeoftheirown.substack.com/p/joan-didion-and-new-journalism?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 (genuinely not a plug - just wanted to welcome you into the Joan Didion fan club : ))
There aren't words for how happy I am that you broke through your Joan Didion wall and with this, one of her very best! This straight forward, honest, wrenchingly direct meditation on loss has been a lifeline for me more than once.
I don’t buy that many books but I bought this AFTER reading it so that I could have it on my shelf as a bible bc I think I will be going back to it
Funny you write this because I JUST bought "Democracy" by Joan Didion at a used bookstore. I have other reading priorities at the moment (Crying in H Mart...for a book club, ugh...) but I was intrigued by the premise which is that we don't really elect the best LEADERS, we elect whomever comes up with the best narrative which, given that this was written decades ago, sounds pretty prescient to me.
Apparently we are ALL in our Joan Didion era! Totally feel like we elect the best candidates and not the best people for the job and the whole thing rewards the completely wrong set of skills.
Excellent review! And I am an avid Joan Didion reader, but no judgement; as you say, sometimes you find a book when you need to find it. I, too, am a delicate flower when it comes to reading about grief and all that stuff, but I agree completely with your assessment: Didion's book is not sentimental, somehow, and she manages to bring the journalistic approach to something so personal. If you're looking for her fiction, I would definitely read 'Play it as it Lays' for its scalpel-like prose, and 'The White Album' (or any of her essay collections, really, are amazing). The Netflix documentary is also brilliantl watching. If you need any more convincing, I wrote a whole newsletter on her: https://anarrativeoftheirown.substack.com/p/joan-didion-and-new-journalism?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 (genuinely not a plug - just wanted to welcome you into the Joan Didion fan club : ))