Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.”

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

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This is my first in depth experience with Didion’s writing (although likely not my last as I have Year of Magical Thinking already on this year’s to read list). Slouching Towards Bethlehem as a title caught my imagination years ago and has stayed with me (I was unaware it was a further literary illusion, missing the Yeats connection). This is Didion’s definitive portrait America, but most specifically California, in the 1960s. I read plenty of books published outside of my own lifetime, but reading Slouching […]

This is a story about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country.

Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion

Salvador by Joan Didion

The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion

Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion

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Slouching Toward Bethlehem – 4/5 Stars Turns out that I think that Joan Didion’s essays are much stronger than her novels. I think this will remain a consistency as I read more of each of these works and come to a better understanding about them. This collection, from the mid-1960s traces both American history of this time-period (in a kind of anthropological and political way) and Joan Didion’s own personal history (in a kind of cultural history). We get essays on local civic campaigns to […]

Didion ain’t no slouch

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

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Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of Didion’s essays, previously published in magazines, on a variety of topics with a special interest in California in the 60’s.  The first section, “Lifestyles in the Golden Land”, includes pieces on a murder in San Bernardino, Joan Baez, John Wayne’s last movies, and San Francisco during the summer of love; the next section contains essays on more abstract topics (diary writing, morality, self-esteem); and the third and final section has delves into a broader geography and personal experiences […]



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