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Tag Archives: The White Album
“The ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language.” — Joan Didion
It’s her birthday today. Someone said that Didion’s (seemingly) simple sentences are like a perfect puzzle. If you remove one line from a paragraph, everything falls apart. Her writing is that well-constructed. She was a notoriously painstaking self-editor. She would … Continue reading
The Books: The White Album, ‘In the Islands’, by Joan Didion
Next book on the essays shelf is The White Album: Essays (FSG Classics), by Joan Didion. Didion has written a couple of interesting essays about Hawaii. Her family would vacation there when she was a child, and stay at a … Continue reading
The Books: The White Album, ‘The Women’s Movement’, by Joan Didion
Next book on the essays shelf is The White Album: Essays (FSG Classics), by Joan Didion. I read this biting analysis of the women’s movement and I think, “Way to make friends, Joan.” Ha. Written in 1972, it comes 20 … Continue reading
The Books: The White Album, ‘Bureaucrats’, by Joan Didion
Next book on the essays shelf is The White Album: Essays (FSG Classics), by Joan Didion. I lived in Los Angeles for four months when I was 23 years old. I stayed in the spare bedroom of a woman in … Continue reading
The Books: The White Album, ‘Holy Water’, by Joan Didion
Next book on the essays shelf is The White Album: Essays (FSG Classics), by Joan Didion. One of the best parts of Didion’s writing, which you might miss since her subject matter is so broad, is how obsessive she is. … Continue reading
The Books: The White Album: ‘The White Album’, by Joan Didion
Next book on the essays shelf is The White Album: Essays (FSG Classics), by Joan Didion. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Didion’s first collection of essays, came out in 1969. The essays had been written in the mid to late 60s, and … Continue reading