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South and West - Joan Didion

By Joan Didion

Release Date: 2017-03-07

Genre: Essays

4 (41 ratings)
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER ‱ â€œOne of contemporary literature’s most revered essayists revives her raw records from a 1970s road trip across the American southwest ... her acute observations of the country’s culture and history feel particularly resonant today.” —Harper’s Bazaar 

Joan Didion, the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean, has always kept notebooks—of overheard dialogue, interviews, drafts of essays, copies of articles. Here are two extended excerpts from notebooks she kept in the 1970s; read together, they form a piercing view of the American political and cultural landscape.

“Notes on the South” traces a road trip that she and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, took through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Her acute observations about the small towns they pass through, her interviews with local figures, and their preoccupation with race, class, and heritage suggest a South largely unchanged today.

“California Notes” began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial. Though Didion never wrote the piece, the time she spent watching the trial in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the West and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here we not only see Didion’s signature irony and imagination in play, we’re also granted an illuminating glimpse into her mind and process.

South and West - Joan Didion

By Joan Didion

Release Date: 2017-03-07

Genre: Essays

4 (41 ratings)
Read Download
NATIONAL BESTSELLER ‱ â€œOne of contemporary literature’s most revered essayists revives her raw records from a 1970s road trip across the American southwest ... her acute observations of the country’s culture and history feel particularly resonant today.” —Harper’s Bazaar 

Joan Didion, the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean, has always kept notebooks—of overheard dialogue, interviews, drafts of essays, copies of articles. Here are two extended excerpts from notebooks she kept in the 1970s; read together, they form a piercing view of the American political and cultural landscape.

“Notes on the South” traces a road trip that she and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, took through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Her acute observations about the small towns they pass through, her interviews with local figures, and their preoccupation with race, class, and heritage suggest a South largely unchanged today.

“California Notes” began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial. Though Didion never wrote the piece, the time she spent watching the trial in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the West and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here we not only see Didion’s signature irony and imagination in play, we’re also granted an illuminating glimpse into her mind and process.

More by Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking

Blue Nights

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

South and West

Let Me Tell You What I Mean

Where I Was From

The Year of Magical Thinking

Notes to John

Blue Nights (Enhanced Edition)

A Book of Common Prayer

The Last Thing He Wanted

Run River

Play It As It Lays

The White Album

Miami

After Henry

Democracy

Salvador

Political Fictions

Vintage Didion

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Insider Baseball

Play It As It Lays

Seduction and Betrayal

El año del pensamiento mågico

Noches azules

El año del pensamiento mågico (edición ilustrada)

O Ano do Pensamento MĂĄgico

The White Album

Los que sueñan el sueño dorado

Lo que quiero decir

L'année de la pensée magique

SegĂșn venga el juego

Miami

Democracy

L'Amérique

BiaƂy album

BlÄ skymning

Pour tout vous dire

El rĂ­o en la noche

L'anno del pensiero magico

Noter til John

Vou Dizer-te o Que Penso

L'any del pensament mĂ gic

O ano do pensamento mĂĄxico

Finzioni politiche

Sud et Ouest

Noites Azuis

Su Ășltimo deseo

Una liturgia comĂșn

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