Reviews
I’d been put off Didion by the way Red Scare-type people feel it’s important to be seen reading her, and assumed she was another writer with observations like “Once, I was 22, dumb, and hot, and everyone liked me, but now I am 27 and 5% less hot and I realize some people are fake friends.” Well, “Goodbye To All That” kind of is that—but everything else in this book rules. She’s great. I can forgive the one bad essay.
Many have commented on the twin threads of anxiety and nostalgia that connect the essays in this volume, so I'm only going to say this: As the cultural moment known as "The Sixties" recedes into history, it becomes ever more colored by those two forces. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is wholly a part of that moment, even as it provides the color as well. Highlights: "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream," "Where the Kissing Never Stops," "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," "Notes from a Native Daughter," "Los Angeles Notebook," "Goodbye to All That"
really liked the personals section, especially on keeping a notebook and on self respect -- didn't much care about the california parts but i love her writing all the same
Didion somehow combines distance and intimacy. It's like reading her diary, if it was written by someone who she told to paraphrase what she tells them.
I bought this book based on Didion's general reputation as an essayist, as well as being familiar with the Yeats poem from which this title is taken. Unfortunately, this book lived up to neither her reputation nor the poem (which would be impossible). It's a dry collection of essays about California and money, probably the two most boring topics on earth. The best essay is "Goodbye to All That" and it's about New York. Maybe I just started with the wrong book, but certainly I won't revisit Didion anytime soon.
