About this title: This collection of essays takes the reader on a psychological tour of the intense, wayward, violent, not a little crazy America of the 1960s. Surfers, students, deadheads and druggies; Joan Baez, Dean Martin, Howard Hughes and John Wayne - all emerge from Didion's gaze just that little bit weirder, that little bit more American. Joan Didion has also written "Sentimental Journeys" and "The White Album".
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Riverside, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780671248062ISBN:0671248065
Description: Good. No Jacket. 5x8. Book is in Good to Good+ condition with slight soiling due to age and handling. USPS Delivery Confirmation included. read more
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 238 p. FSG Classics. Audience: General/trade. Brand New! Might have some shelf wear, no marks. Fast Shipping! Satisfaction Guarannteed! read more
Edition: Touchstone ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780671248062ISBN:0671248065
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Good+, pages are clean, though tanned; wraps are chipped and there is a reading crease. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Touchstone Books (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Delta (Dell)
Date Published: 1968
ISBN-13:9780374266363ISBN:0374266360
Description: Spine creases, shelf wear, small pub. sticker on front cover, pages tight, clean & white. 238 p. Audience: General/trade. Bright blue cover with red & green stylized butterflies. read more
Description: New. Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas. GREAT BUY. Brand New From US Distributor. WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3, 500, 000 BOOKS SOLD. read more
"Joan Didion's collection of 1960's essays. In her clear, incisive writing style, she views a California -- and an America -- that, in her eyes, often teeter on the brink of madness. The deserted prison on Alcatraz; the dying world in which she grew up, ranching in and around Sacramento, replaced by the suburban "ranch" homes of technocrats and engineers; the loss of standards in the Hollywood movie industry; instant weddings in Las Vegas; Joan Baez as a harbinger of the future; John Wayne as an icon of the past; the banality of murder in a rootless society. And the title essay, her bemused 1967 observations of spaced out daily life in the Haight district of San Francisco.
A series of alarms about the fate of our society that ring as true today as they did 40 years ago."
"I read this collection many, many years before I first set foot in California. It was something I dipped into now and again to kind of remind myself about that time period, that 1960s mind-set: the Haight was still happening; Woodstock was not yet on the horizon; Apollo 11 had not yet gone to the Moon. But once I started spending time in California, I brought this out again to read it for another reason: to see what it could tell me about California in particular. For instance, in "Los Angeles Notebook" there is a long description of the Santa Ana winds, which was something I initially read and filed away as interesting but without any meaning for me: Back in New England, we didn't have anything quite like a Santa Ana wind. But after I started spending a lot of time in Southern California--in and around Los Angeles and San Diego and out in the Inland Empire--her description of the wind and its power, of the inevitable fires in the box canyons all came back to me. And I saw how right she was.
So whether you're trying to get an insight into California that goes beyond the obvious, or looking for a way into understanding the Sixties, this is well worth a read."
"My writing teacher assigned the essay "On Keeping a Notebook" to us, and instead of just reading that I read the entire collection cover to cover. Joan Didion is a writer's writer, someone whose very word choice conjures envy. The way she weaves so many different narratives, moments, and voices into one coherent work - a work that appears to be mere pastiche, but is actually much deeper - shows so many lessons to be learned.
True, some of the essays are a bit dated, but I still think the relevance carries. The namesake essay "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" about San Francisco during the summer of love is everything and nothing you'd expect it to be. "I Can't Get That Monster Out of My Mind" is a critical commentary on how Hollywood had become pejorative during the 1960s, basically stating that there was nothing new at all being made in modern film at the time. While some of this criticism is a bit overly-harsh, Didion does point out some essential issues with the film industry that are still only too common today.
I personally loved her "Notes from a Native Daughter", all about Sacramento and how it is so unlike San Francisco, and any other town in California. The entire collection is essentially a group of works on California; the sense of place, landscape, absurdity, character, beauty, and ugliness are all particular to this state. I suppose I hadn't realized that Didion was so much a "California" writer before, which makes her hold a special place in my heart. But, even without this, as a writing model she has no comparison."
"Joan Didion can write. It's a little intimidating reading her, since not only is she a master stylist, but she's great at finding the appropriate nugget that represents the ideas or the subjects she's writing about.
Didion writes about dreams, both aborted and realized, and how those dreams intersect with larger reality: dreams intersecting with neighborhoods and ego and age and violence, but sometimes coming out intact, even if they are a little changed.
And damn, some of her stories just hurt me. Hurt me in the way a best friend can hurt you at four in the morning after a marathon heart to heart, when they suddenly lean in close and tell you something that you don't want to hear, but that you need to hear, and suddenly everything just crashes a bit. That crash is your ego or your false beliefs or something else that should crash, but still hurts when it does. Didion does that."
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