Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays (FSG Classics)

Some of the best essays I've read.

The first 1/3 is genius. By comparison the rest is a bit of a disappointment. I love Didion, so I wanted to love this book, but I just lost interest after the title essay.

Uneven- all good, some great

Didion said once that there are certain writer's voices that you internalize, and that it becomes impossible to do so if you discover them past the age of eighteen or so (Hemingway, for her). Well, I first read and fell in love with her at sixteen, so I made the cut, and her voice is so distinctive and her style is so intertwined with her meaning that reading her makes you think like...more

Didion said once that there are certain writer's voices that you internalize, and that it becomes impossible to do so if you discover them past the age of eighteen or so (Hemingway, for her). Well, I first read and fell in love with her at sixteen, so I made the cut, and her voice is so distinctive and her style is so intertwined with her meaning that reading her makes you think like her. Her controlled, structured rhythms and restrained emotion and feigned objectivity belie the intensely personal nature of her essays. As she says in "On Keeping a Notebook," the point is always the implacable "I" behind the story. Even the journalistic pieces strive for cultural understanding and, by extension, self-understanding. I love the eerie, questing undertones (or overtones?) in every essay, I love her inquiry into the relationship between place and person, society and individual, collective and personal. I've read "Goodbye to All That" so many times I've got most of it memorized. Love this book.   hide

Didion's a pleasure to read for the technical quality of her prose alone. This collection of essays from the late 60s provides some interesting views into an era now known mostly through retrospectives. The titular essay, about Haight-Ashbury in 1967, and another essay on Alcatraz after the prison was decommissioned and before it became the local tourist trap, both offer perspectives...more

Didion's a pleasure to read for the technical quality of her prose alone. This collection of essays from the late 60s provides some interesting views into an era now known mostly through retrospectives. The titular essay, about Haight-Ashbury in 1967, and another essay on Alcatraz after the prison was decommissioned and before it became the local tourist trap, both offer perspectives largely unseen elsewhere. Her somewhat detached narrative voice is intriguing, perhaps a bit cold at times.   hide

Insightful and poignant. Beautiful prose.

been wanting to read this for years. thank hussein slack! so far so good.

Yet another example of Didion's brilliant capacity for empathy and beautiful writing.

The book I read just before taking off for the High Desert. Forty years later, Didion's take on what California was and is remains amazingly credible. Highly recommended.