South and West

From the best selling author of the National Book Award winning The Year of Magical Thinking two extended excerpts from her never before seen notebooks writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer.Joan Didion has always kept notebooks of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles and here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters Convention She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through And from a different notebook the California Notes that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976 Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage, all of which would appear later in her acclaimed 2003 book, Where I Was From. Download South and West Author Joan Didion – kino-fada.fr I love Joan Didion.On any given day, Play it as it Lays fights for a spot in my top three favorite novels of all time alongside Renata Adler s Pitch Dark, Mary Robison s Why Did I Ever, and Joy Williams s State of Grace I can make have made a convincing argument that the opening paragraph of Slouching Towards Bethlehem is probably the very best opening paragraph in all of creative nonfiction.I think, and I am not alone in this certainly, that her body of work cements her as one of the most I love Joan Didion.On any given day, Play it as it Lays fights for a spot in my top three favorite novels of all time alongside Renata Adler s Pitch Dark, Mary Robison s Why Did I Ever, and Joy Williams s State of Grace I can make have made a convincing argument that the opening paragraph of Slouching Towards Bethlehem is probably the very best opening paragraph in all of creative nonfiction.I think, and I am not alone in this certainly, that her body of work cements her as one of the most important and, one would like to add, most brilliant, most gifted, most skilled ...Joan Didion s notebook of her drive across Louisiana and Mississippi with her husband in the summer of 1970 is filled with glimpses and impressions of the blazing heat, canopies of kudzu, a sense of disintegration and insularity Didion interviewed friends of friends and folks who knew about important local happenings, but she had a hard time gathering the ambition to follow through with attending events in the muggy heat She made notes, but the aimless drift through a South she knew was import Joan Didion s notebook of her drive across Louisiana and Mississippi with her husband in the summer of 1970 is filled with glimpses and impressions of the blazing heat, canopies of kudzu, a sense of disintegration and insularity Didion interviewed friends of friends and folks who knew about important local happenings, but she had a hard time gathering the ambition to follow through with attending events in the muggy heat She made notes, but the aimless drift through a South she knew was important somehow never fanned into flameuntil now Her instincts were right The South tethers us still, to a past we cannot escape Didion s experience of the South is that of confederate flag beach towels ...Joan offers the reader an intimate look at her writing process Anyone who read Didion would be aware of her personal life, her upbringing, her essays and how she wrote about the loss of a husband and her daughter in her last two non fiction works Here we are in the 70s in the South New Orleans the past the glimpse of conversations in elevators. the state of various swimming pools in hotels the process of writing in a notebook The west the look toward the future And reading Joan offers the reader an intimate look at her writing process Anyone who read Didion would be aware of her personal life, her upbringing, her essays and how she wrote about the loss of a husband and her daughter in her last two non fiction works Here we are in the 70s in the South New Orleans the past the glimpse of conversations in elevators. the state of various swimming pools in hotels the process of writing in a...Think of this as a literary sketchbook, full of jotted down conversation scraps, impressions, memories and thoughts Most of the book is Didion s reflections on the South circa 1970 The smaller portion of the book deals with California around the time of the Patty Hearst trial I loved the section devoted to the South not so much the West.No one writes like Didion her prose is so pure and crisp, her observations so keen and precise Didion s tone is always cool, almost clinical, but she cuts Think of this as a literary sketchbook, full of jotted down conversation scraps, impressions, memories and thoughts Most of the book is Didion s reflections on the South circa 1970 The smaller portion of the book deals with California around the time of the Patty Hearst trial I loved the section devoted to the South not so much the West.No one writes like Didion her prose is so pure and cris...How could I forget how perfectly Joan Didion could craft a sentence, capturing every nuance, every irony, even what was unsaid Although the pieces in South and West never became published essays, the same quality remains And I see why it is now that these notes for pieces that never got published finally saw the light now in the wake of the election.Because, in fact, Didion, the eternal pessimist, knew what we did not That nothing has really changed since she and her husband John Gregory Dunn How could I forget how perfectly Joan Didion could craft a sentence, capturing every nuance, every irony, even what was unsaid Although the pieces in South and West never became published essays, the same quality remains And I see why it is now that these notes for pieces that never got published finally saw the light now in the wake of the election.Because, in fact, Didion, the et...Nothing makes me want to writethan reading Joan Didion.I picked this one up because I m doing Book Riot s Read Harder Challenge and needed a travel memoir This one was short and it was written by Joan Didion, so it was an easy pick I love the way Didion writes, but this book isn t very good The tone is rather condescending and it s just not all tha...I owe this book a longer review, because I struggled mightily with South and West 2017 Fourfalse starts it took me to finish a book of mere 126 pages I m not from the South I spent all of one year living in Nashville, Tennessee some 40 years after Joan Didion drove through cities, towns, and former Delta plantations in Louisiana and Mississippi My location was urban, near a university, a self described blue dot in a red sea Yet, Didion s dismissive flippant, at times haughty remarks a I owe this book a longer review, because I struggled mightily with South and West 2017 Fourfalse starts it took me to finish a book of mere 126 pages I m not from the South I...We sat out in back by the bayou and drank gin and tonics and when a light rain began to fall, a kind of mist, Walker never paid any mind but just kept talking, and walking up to the house to get fresh drinks It was a thunderstorm, with odd light, and there were occasional water skiers on the black bayou water This collection is comprised of conversations and observations from a notebook As is customarily her style, Didion recorded bits and pieces that reveal lifestyle and cultural landscape We sat out in back by the bayou and drank gin and tonics and when a light rain began to fall, a kind of mist, Walker never paid any mind but just kept talking, and walking up to the house to get fresh drinks It was a thunderstorm, with odd light, and there were occasional water skiers on the black bayou water This collection is comprised of conversations and observations from a notebook As is customarily her style, Didion recorded bits and pieces that reveal lifestyle and cultural landscape She spent a month, in the summer of 1970, traveling through the American South having conversations with notable Southerners and taking notes of small town life and habits One month isn t really enough to gage the befuddling complications of the ...Setting 1970 Deep South roadtrip Louisiana, Mississippi, AlabamaDidion takes one month to travel the rural south to better understand the west She sees these two cardinal directions as linked in the American psyche, and forges that linkintricately in this piece Three quarters of the book are devoted to her travels in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with only the last sectionfully describing her own experiences of West , coming of age in California Her writing is so effo Setting 1970 Deep South roadtrip Louisiana, Mississippi, AlabamaDidion takes one month to travel the rural south to better understand the west She sees these two cardinal directions as linked in the American psyche, and forges that linkintricately in this piece Three quarters of the book are devoted to her travels in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with only the last sectionfully describing her own experiences of West , coming of age in California Her writing ...

• English
• 16 December 2017
Joan Didion
• Hardcover
• 160 pages
• 1524732796
• Joan Didion
• South and West