What do you think?
Rate this book
Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing By Joan Didion's Light
In The White Album, Joan Didion famously wrote that “a place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively…loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image.” Cruising in her Daytona yellow Corvette Stingray, taking it all in behind dark glasses, Joan Didion claimed California for all time. Slouching Towards Los Angeles is a multi-faceted portrait of the literary icon who, in turn, belongs to us.
This collection of original essays covers the turf that made Didion a sensation―Hollywood and Patty Hearst; Malibu, Manson and the Mojave; the Summer of Love and the Central Park Five―while bringing together some of the finest voices of today’s Los Angeles and beyond. Slouching Towards Los Angeles is a love letter and thank you note; personal memoir and social commentary; cultural history and literary critique. Fans of Didion, lovers of California, and fellow writers alike will all find something to dig into, in this rich exploration of the inner and outer landscapes Joan Didion traveled, shaping our own journeys in the process.
This collection of original essays covers the turf that made Didion a sensation―Hollywood and Patty Hearst; Malibu, Manson and the Mojave; the Summer of Love and the Central Park Five―while bringing together some of the finest voices of today’s Los Angeles and beyond. Slouching Towards Los Angeles is a love letter and thank you note; personal memoir and social commentary; cultural history and literary critique. Fans of Didion, lovers of California, and fellow writers alike will all find something to dig into, in this rich exploration of the inner and outer landscapes Joan Didion traveled, shaping our own journeys in the process.
197 pages, Hardcover
First published February 11, 2020
28 people are currently reading
703 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 22, 2020
Just finished book 2 in #stayhome24in48 read-a-thon. It’s a book I was really looking forward to-Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light- as I love Joan Didion and Los Angeles. Some of the essays are excellent, evincing an understanding of Didion and her work or evoking the Los Angeles of Didion’s residency in a way reminiscent of Didion herself. Particularly excellent is an essay by Stacie Stukin about growing up in Brentwood in the 70s and by Steph Cha of moving to Didion’s Hollywood 25 years later. Disappointing were the essays that were all about the writer and his/her angst, somewhat unrelated to Didion, and the ones by people not from California who misunderstand some of what drives Joan Didion or misapply it to themselves. One of these repeatedly referred to Los Angeles as “LA” a moniker for our city that I guarantee you will never find in Didion’s work. Still the references to Didion’s best work in many essays reminded me of my own feelings upon first discovering Didion, which I did as a high school senior reading the White Album. Happy I read the book, one of the books from my birthday haul from @warwicksbooks
January 18, 2024
25 authors contributed to this celebration and investigation into Joan Didion’s claim on California. It’s essays, it’s a lover letter, it's a thank you note.
As with any collection of essays that includes many authors, there are going to be some essays that you like and some you don’t; some authors writing that you like and some you don’t. That said, I enjoyed the ways in which these authors wove stories and moments from their own personal lives together with Didion's writing, reflecting on how it affected their lives and their work. I will read anything with Joan Didion's name on it even if it's not her work directly because I like being in the orbit of her work.
It takes near investigative work to find the list of contributors for this book so for anyone else searching, I will list them below:
ANN FRIEDMAN
JORI FINKEL
MARGARET WAPPLER
JESSICA HUNDLEY
CHRISTINE LENNON
CATHERINE WAGLEY
SU WU
JOSHUA WOLF SHENK
LAUREN SANDLER
MICHELLE CHIHARA
SARAH TOMLINSON
LINDA IMMEDIATO
TRACY MCMILLAN
DAN CRANE
STEPH CHA
CAROLINE RYDER
JOE DONNELLY
MONICA CORCORAN HAREL
ALYSIA ABBOTT STACIE STUKIN
HEATHER JOHN FOGARTY
MARC WEINGARTEN
SCOTT BENZEL
EZRHA JEAN BLACK
As with any collection of essays that includes many authors, there are going to be some essays that you like and some you don’t; some authors writing that you like and some you don’t. That said, I enjoyed the ways in which these authors wove stories and moments from their own personal lives together with Didion's writing, reflecting on how it affected their lives and their work. I will read anything with Joan Didion's name on it even if it's not her work directly because I like being in the orbit of her work.
It takes near investigative work to find the list of contributors for this book so for anyone else searching, I will list them below:
ANN FRIEDMAN
JORI FINKEL
MARGARET WAPPLER
JESSICA HUNDLEY
CHRISTINE LENNON
CATHERINE WAGLEY
SU WU
JOSHUA WOLF SHENK
LAUREN SANDLER
MICHELLE CHIHARA
SARAH TOMLINSON
LINDA IMMEDIATO
TRACY MCMILLAN
DAN CRANE
STEPH CHA
CAROLINE RYDER
JOE DONNELLY
MONICA CORCORAN HAREL
ALYSIA ABBOTT STACIE STUKIN
HEATHER JOHN FOGARTY
MARC WEINGARTEN
SCOTT BENZEL
EZRHA JEAN BLACK
February 19, 2021
Some good essays here. Particularly Michelle Chihara’s “Where I Am From,” which starts to unearth some of didion’s connections to real estate development in Sacramento, revealing that Didion sold land to Macdonald’s, which is the funniest thing and I want all her fans to know it. I wish she’d gone a little further with her indictment though. She ends up just kinda going “can ya blame her?” I also dug Stacie Stukin’s “Brentwood Notebook” and Steph Cha’s “Points on a Map.” But beyond those three, the collection is very flimsy, and has people talking about “place” and “Los Angeles” with about as much credibility as someone who watched one single movie (“we love cars here and everything smells like jasmine!”). The reckoning with Joan continues!
May 26, 2021
Favorite essay included: Points on a Map by Steph Cha.
“To be a point on a map is common, universal, and therefore trivial. It is also to share a common universe, to lay claim to the extraordinary and the unimaginable.”
“To be a point on a map is common, universal, and therefore trivial. It is also to share a common universe, to lay claim to the extraordinary and the unimaginable.”
March 31, 2020
On Writing Careers: The Legacy of Joan Didion
She makes it look so effortless,” said contributing essayist Monica Corcoran Harel during the February 2020 publication party at Chevalier’s Books for Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light. Harel was speaking of Didion’s writing and of her style. Didion’s choices about clothing and accessories big and small (bright yellow muscle cars and dark sunglasses) are celebrated, as is her ability to frame herself within her surroundings, especially while posing for photographs. The word “icon” came up more than a few times during the event that featured a rich conversation about the new anthology of Los Angeles writers examining her legacy.
At the event, anthology editor Steffie Nelson presided at the podium introducing the contributors, four of who were female, a testament to the ground Didion broke while writing for The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and The Saturday Evening Post during the 1960s. Her career skyrocketed from there.
I listening to the discussion among contributors from the second row, feeling embarrassed and discomforted by the white wine seeping into the crotch of my pants. In trying to get a selfie showing the standing room only crowd, I’d spilled a very modest pour into my lap. It felt like a gallon. The selfie came out slightly blurry; a combination of genuine excitement and disappointed exasperation appears in my expression. Effortless? Definitely not.
That is the point, however, to much of Didion’s writing. Her work may look effortless, but periods of writing droughts and doubts accompanied her productivity and success. As evidenced by the scope of contributors to Slouching Towards Los Angeles, Didion inspired generations of writers to pursue careers in journalism and creative writing; she never promised it would be easy. Her writing attests to the very opposite.
Among other topics, Didion’s essays explore both the siren song that attracts many writers to New York, the inevitable souring when New York no longer entrances, and the refuge that LA provides. Contributors Ann Friedman and Christine Lennon each trace their journeys following this well-trodden path, both ending up, as Didion did, in Los Angeles. Friedman writes, “New York was someone else’s story that I halfheartedly inhabited because I was painfully aware that I hadn’t yet written my own.” When asked during the event if any of Didion’s lines stuck in her head, she said, “Of course,” and echoed the classic line, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Lennon described her journey driving cross-country, and said the inspiration for her essay came from a photograph of the writer-icon that hangs “in her powder room.”
All this talk of Didion’s migration reminded me of my own fraught, brief relationship with New York. Like Didion, I was born and raised in Northern California and moved to New York as an ambitious young adult. But I was not yet committed to what I perceived as a financially nonviable writing career, and I knew internships at literary magazines couldn’t cover my expenses. While my stint lasted only a single year, that one New York winter provided vast portions of discontent and misery for this California native. Whereas Didion regretted staying at the party too long, perhaps I arrived too late.
Upon my graceless return home to the San Francisco suburbs, I began to climb out of a slump of depression, failure, and self-doubt. I should have read more Didion in that moment instead of returning to my formative narrative refuges of science fiction and fantasy, which I re-read between moments of staring at the cracks in the ceiling of my old room in my parents’ house, wondering how to reboot my life.
Some things I learned from that period of recovery: a good diet, physical exercise, and a benign climate can do wonders for lifting one’s mood. So can fully embracing the literary impulse as I learned while taking creative writing classes at San Francisco State University. What is it about the act of writing that we find comforting?
In Heather John Fogarty’s essay, “On Keeping a Cookbook,” she investigates Didion’s notes about food prepared and served to a bevy of guests in her Malibu, Hollywood, and Brentwood homes. Fogarty ascribes the habit of note taking to a desire “to create a sense of order and connection to time and place… There is safety to be found in nostalgia, even if that safety is imagined and memory parts ways with the reality of the moment.” My own experience with note taking suggests that its potency lies in helping making sense of chaos at the time of writing, rather than to fuel nostalgia sometime in the future.
During the period of my recuperation, I threw away all my high school journals, a decision I knew would be consequential. The journals were full of painful memories, vividly rendered and perhaps not distant enough in time to be safe, yet they also captured details I can never recover. I suspected one day I might want to read my notes but decided instead that I needed to move forward, to create the life I wanted to live without being trapped by the records I kept. Not everything worth remembering fits well within the confines of a page or a photograph.
The question of how we reconcile our past now that we’re grown was raised explicitly by the lone male contributor present, Joe Donnelly, in his exploration of his evolving feelings toward two versions of The White Album: Didion’s essay collection and the Beatle’s album. During the event Donnelly sat apart, or more accurately, stood mostly to one side and apart. A small detail that alone signifies little. But—if I’m able to analyze the situation with a fraction of Didion’s meticulous insight—throughout the evening he commanded more than his share of attention.
It never occurred to me in the moment to stand up and point to my wine-dampened crotch, grab some attention, and connect myself to the proceedings. If only I had the gumption to not care what anyone thought about me, my writing, or the spectacle-of-me, I might be writing memoir. I could fill a book with dozens of stories covering decades of adventures, but I’ve never wanted to create a spectacle of myself. But there was Didion, lurking in the frame, or just outside of it, as she spun stories about California and Los Angeles that were much bigger than they first appeared.
Reading Didion now, in light of how she impacted other writers as talented as those featured in Slouching Towards Los Angeles, puts me in a mind to expand the trajectory of my writing career and to excavate some of the stories buried in my memory. Studying the approach of the contributors to this anthology has opened some doors of possibility as surely as psychedelics open the doors of perception. I’m grateful to Nelson for exploring the byways and deep reservoirs of inspiration that Joan Didion has bestowed on us. I’m looking towards the horizon and imagining what might be coming our way to be born.
She makes it look so effortless,” said contributing essayist Monica Corcoran Harel during the February 2020 publication party at Chevalier’s Books for Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light. Harel was speaking of Didion’s writing and of her style. Didion’s choices about clothing and accessories big and small (bright yellow muscle cars and dark sunglasses) are celebrated, as is her ability to frame herself within her surroundings, especially while posing for photographs. The word “icon” came up more than a few times during the event that featured a rich conversation about the new anthology of Los Angeles writers examining her legacy.
At the event, anthology editor Steffie Nelson presided at the podium introducing the contributors, four of who were female, a testament to the ground Didion broke while writing for The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and The Saturday Evening Post during the 1960s. Her career skyrocketed from there.
I listening to the discussion among contributors from the second row, feeling embarrassed and discomforted by the white wine seeping into the crotch of my pants. In trying to get a selfie showing the standing room only crowd, I’d spilled a very modest pour into my lap. It felt like a gallon. The selfie came out slightly blurry; a combination of genuine excitement and disappointed exasperation appears in my expression. Effortless? Definitely not.
That is the point, however, to much of Didion’s writing. Her work may look effortless, but periods of writing droughts and doubts accompanied her productivity and success. As evidenced by the scope of contributors to Slouching Towards Los Angeles, Didion inspired generations of writers to pursue careers in journalism and creative writing; she never promised it would be easy. Her writing attests to the very opposite.
Among other topics, Didion’s essays explore both the siren song that attracts many writers to New York, the inevitable souring when New York no longer entrances, and the refuge that LA provides. Contributors Ann Friedman and Christine Lennon each trace their journeys following this well-trodden path, both ending up, as Didion did, in Los Angeles. Friedman writes, “New York was someone else’s story that I halfheartedly inhabited because I was painfully aware that I hadn’t yet written my own.” When asked during the event if any of Didion’s lines stuck in her head, she said, “Of course,” and echoed the classic line, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Lennon described her journey driving cross-country, and said the inspiration for her essay came from a photograph of the writer-icon that hangs “in her powder room.”
All this talk of Didion’s migration reminded me of my own fraught, brief relationship with New York. Like Didion, I was born and raised in Northern California and moved to New York as an ambitious young adult. But I was not yet committed to what I perceived as a financially nonviable writing career, and I knew internships at literary magazines couldn’t cover my expenses. While my stint lasted only a single year, that one New York winter provided vast portions of discontent and misery for this California native. Whereas Didion regretted staying at the party too long, perhaps I arrived too late.
Upon my graceless return home to the San Francisco suburbs, I began to climb out of a slump of depression, failure, and self-doubt. I should have read more Didion in that moment instead of returning to my formative narrative refuges of science fiction and fantasy, which I re-read between moments of staring at the cracks in the ceiling of my old room in my parents’ house, wondering how to reboot my life.
Some things I learned from that period of recovery: a good diet, physical exercise, and a benign climate can do wonders for lifting one’s mood. So can fully embracing the literary impulse as I learned while taking creative writing classes at San Francisco State University. What is it about the act of writing that we find comforting?
In Heather John Fogarty’s essay, “On Keeping a Cookbook,” she investigates Didion’s notes about food prepared and served to a bevy of guests in her Malibu, Hollywood, and Brentwood homes. Fogarty ascribes the habit of note taking to a desire “to create a sense of order and connection to time and place… There is safety to be found in nostalgia, even if that safety is imagined and memory parts ways with the reality of the moment.” My own experience with note taking suggests that its potency lies in helping making sense of chaos at the time of writing, rather than to fuel nostalgia sometime in the future.
During the period of my recuperation, I threw away all my high school journals, a decision I knew would be consequential. The journals were full of painful memories, vividly rendered and perhaps not distant enough in time to be safe, yet they also captured details I can never recover. I suspected one day I might want to read my notes but decided instead that I needed to move forward, to create the life I wanted to live without being trapped by the records I kept. Not everything worth remembering fits well within the confines of a page or a photograph.
The question of how we reconcile our past now that we’re grown was raised explicitly by the lone male contributor present, Joe Donnelly, in his exploration of his evolving feelings toward two versions of The White Album: Didion’s essay collection and the Beatle’s album. During the event Donnelly sat apart, or more accurately, stood mostly to one side and apart. A small detail that alone signifies little. But—if I’m able to analyze the situation with a fraction of Didion’s meticulous insight—throughout the evening he commanded more than his share of attention.
It never occurred to me in the moment to stand up and point to my wine-dampened crotch, grab some attention, and connect myself to the proceedings. If only I had the gumption to not care what anyone thought about me, my writing, or the spectacle-of-me, I might be writing memoir. I could fill a book with dozens of stories covering decades of adventures, but I’ve never wanted to create a spectacle of myself. But there was Didion, lurking in the frame, or just outside of it, as she spun stories about California and Los Angeles that were much bigger than they first appeared.
Reading Didion now, in light of how she impacted other writers as talented as those featured in Slouching Towards Los Angeles, puts me in a mind to expand the trajectory of my writing career and to excavate some of the stories buried in my memory. Studying the approach of the contributors to this anthology has opened some doors of possibility as surely as psychedelics open the doors of perception. I’m grateful to Nelson for exploring the byways and deep reservoirs of inspiration that Joan Didion has bestowed on us. I’m looking towards the horizon and imagining what might be coming our way to be born.
May 30, 2024
Some books you’re meant to find. That’s definitely true for this one which i found randomly at a store in west LA. reading this, I felt in community with writers who also talk about Didion in reverence, albeit acknowledging her flaws.
Wild to think how I found Didion while I was in NYC and then wound up moving to Los Angeles, like many of the writers in this compilation of short essays.
Such a diverse range of essays, mostly personal, inspired by her writing, with some critical analyses of her work that is so apt.
I can’t wait to re-read
Wild to think how I found Didion while I was in NYC and then wound up moving to Los Angeles, like many of the writers in this compilation of short essays.
Such a diverse range of essays, mostly personal, inspired by her writing, with some critical analyses of her work that is so apt.
I can’t wait to re-read
January 20, 2025
Some were good, some were great, and some missed the mark, not a book that you need to feel obligated to read every essay or tribute - but some really sink into me and feels like having a dialogue with another Didion lover
January 20, 2023
Traveling/vacationing for a bit in Southern California, so, when in Rome.
This is a combo review of the book that accompanies the Hammer Museum's exhibit, "Joan Didion: What She Means," which I visited on 1/18/23, and also "Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion's Light." I don't have a lot to say about either except to note that the real work has begun, A.J. (After Joan), to pile on and elevate the legacy. Will she ever (rightfully) coexist with Hemingway and Faulkner or just remain an enduring American puzzle? It will take only time to sort it out; maybe, maybe not. Legions of acolytes (and, in the case of the essay collection here, pale imitators) fixate on her. Still, millions more have never heard of her, certainly never read her. Didion's detractors are many, too, eager now to reexamine issues of privilege and class in her work. (Bring it on. The work speaks for itself, even as it mystifies.)
As far as the Hammer exhibit goes -- curated by Hilton Als, who seems to be the designated driver of the Didion legacy -- I thought it achieved its goal nicely: It's not about Didion ephemera, it's about her relationship to place; it rightly endeavors to immerse the viewer in Didion's world, the way the world appeared to her at different times and situations. ("See it my way" etc.) (Three stars.)
The essay book, which came out in 2020 before Didion died, is a nice thought -- and a harbinger, I think, of the kind of work that will emerge in an attempt to seal her legacy. Only a few of the writers in this book, however, really rise to the occasion/assignment. Best pieces are "Where I Am From" by Michelle Chihara, who actually took time to delve into Didion's role as a California landowner (by inheritance), which was much larger than Didion herself ever explained in her work; and "The Black Albums: How Joan Didion and the Beatles Went Noir Together" by Joe Donnelly. (Two stars.)
This is a combo review of the book that accompanies the Hammer Museum's exhibit, "Joan Didion: What She Means," which I visited on 1/18/23, and also "Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion's Light." I don't have a lot to say about either except to note that the real work has begun, A.J. (After Joan), to pile on and elevate the legacy. Will she ever (rightfully) coexist with Hemingway and Faulkner or just remain an enduring American puzzle? It will take only time to sort it out; maybe, maybe not. Legions of acolytes (and, in the case of the essay collection here, pale imitators) fixate on her. Still, millions more have never heard of her, certainly never read her. Didion's detractors are many, too, eager now to reexamine issues of privilege and class in her work. (Bring it on. The work speaks for itself, even as it mystifies.)
As far as the Hammer exhibit goes -- curated by Hilton Als, who seems to be the designated driver of the Didion legacy -- I thought it achieved its goal nicely: It's not about Didion ephemera, it's about her relationship to place; it rightly endeavors to immerse the viewer in Didion's world, the way the world appeared to her at different times and situations. ("See it my way" etc.) (Three stars.)
The essay book, which came out in 2020 before Didion died, is a nice thought -- and a harbinger, I think, of the kind of work that will emerge in an attempt to seal her legacy. Only a few of the writers in this book, however, really rise to the occasion/assignment. Best pieces are "Where I Am From" by Michelle Chihara, who actually took time to delve into Didion's role as a California landowner (by inheritance), which was much larger than Didion herself ever explained in her work; and "The Black Albums: How Joan Didion and the Beatles Went Noir Together" by Joe Donnelly. (Two stars.)
April 26, 2024
I enjoyed all the essays, whether they were musings on Didion's work, or autobiographical pieces exploring how Didion inspired the writer.
I found all the personal stories interesting in their own right but understand how these might frustrate someone who wants more focus on Didion herself.
Lovely writing, thoughtful and sensitive. It leaves me wanting to read Didion's work.
I found all the personal stories interesting in their own right but understand how these might frustrate someone who wants more focus on Didion herself.
Lovely writing, thoughtful and sensitive. It leaves me wanting to read Didion's work.
June 28, 2023
In a neighborhood bookstore I found the Joan-Didion-inspired book: Slouching Towards Los Angeles, Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light. The book is a collection of twenty-five essays, related to Joan Didion in some way or another and compiled in 2020 by Steffie Nelson, who also contributed one of the essays. It is a short book at 196-pages and it that packs enough Didion history and literary memorabilia to make a fan of hers like me surprised at how many facets of her journey that we recalled with affection or learned about for the first time. Putting icing on the cake are the well-written essays. The contributing writers knew that no-nonsense, hard-hitting prose was the minimum for this mission.
February 5, 2021
I found some essays more engaging than others. Some were cold, colder than Didion, but less intelligent - taking the insertion of the personal to a navel-gazing level that Didion for all her blind spots still manages to transcend every time. My favorite essays were “A Woman Apart,” “Where I Am From,” and “Tania of the Golden West.” My least favorite were “The Opposite of Cool,” “A Letter to Joan on Turning Fifty-Five,” and “On Keeping a Cookbook.”
Jia Tolentino used a great word in a Writers Bloc talk tonight to describe her feelings about Didion's legacy, the "tote bag-ization" of her style and person, that doesn't do justice to the disquiet and complexity of her mind. It's a lot shinier and slicker to talk about Didion and driving a car down an LA freeway than it is to talk about Didion and the difficulties and contradictions of her subjectivity. Didion wrote, "Had I been granted even limited access to my own mind, I would never have felt the need to write." Yet these essayists writing on Didion seem to feel they not only know their own minds intimately, they also know hers! I think "tote bag-ization" describes this collection very well--maybe not the whole collection, but certainly a good number of the pieces included.
Jia Tolentino used a great word in a Writers Bloc talk tonight to describe her feelings about Didion's legacy, the "tote bag-ization" of her style and person, that doesn't do justice to the disquiet and complexity of her mind. It's a lot shinier and slicker to talk about Didion and driving a car down an LA freeway than it is to talk about Didion and the difficulties and contradictions of her subjectivity. Didion wrote, "Had I been granted even limited access to my own mind, I would never have felt the need to write." Yet these essayists writing on Didion seem to feel they not only know their own minds intimately, they also know hers! I think "tote bag-ization" describes this collection very well--maybe not the whole collection, but certainly a good number of the pieces included.
January 14, 2022
A introspective analysis of Joan Didion's original essays " The White Album" ," Slouching Towards Bethlehem" of L..A Culture Landscapes ,Sensations, psychological perspective of the gnostic west coast. Slouching Towards Los Angeles is a love letter and thank you note examined by fellow peers of writers whom have followed her aspired journey as transplants.
I found this read inducing to my own traversed native roots of Los Angeles in some measure becoming jaded as an working artist and witnessing the scene from behind the curtain in tinsel town. Joan Didion " A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively...Loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image". RIP Joan Didion.
I found this read inducing to my own traversed native roots of Los Angeles in some measure becoming jaded as an working artist and witnessing the scene from behind the curtain in tinsel town. Joan Didion " A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively...Loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image". RIP Joan Didion.
January 8, 2024
I enjoyed this book. However, I did find myself thinking about how glad I was that it was short and I'd soon be finished while reading it. Out of the 25 essays in "Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing By Joan Didion's Light," there were only five that I found particularly interesting. The two that spoke to me most were “No Milk Today: Revisting My Haight-Ashbury” by Alysia Abbott and “Brentwood Notebook” by Stacie Stukin, as these writers seemed to use Joan Didion's style when telling their own stories. I also enjoyed some of the new information I'd never heard about Didion in “On Keeping a Cookbook” by Heather John Fogarty and "Where I am From” by Michelle Chihara and the ideas presented in “The Last Private Man: From Howard Hughes to Jeff Goldblum” by Dan Crane.
The main reason why I did not love this collection is that it seemed as if some writers did not step up to the plate and actually "[write] by Joan Didion's Light." While many of them had stories similar to Didion's, about living in New York as a journalist and then coming to Los Angeles, none of them were able to capture her unique style. This led to many of the writers essentially re-writing each other's essays, as almost all of them discussed photos of Didion with her corvette stingray and smoking,
her different homes in Los Angeles, and her fragile figure. I thought that the two essayists which wrote about their own stories during the same time period in which Didion rose to fame were much more similar to Didion's style. Perhaps this is because those who tried to write about Los Angeles in a later day in age were unable to grasp the same image of what Los Angeles meant to Didion since it is an ever-changing city.
Additionally, some of the writers who weren't from California weren't able to appropriately capture Didion's feelings about Los Angeles—as none of them touched on the abrupt differences between Northern California and Southern California and, of course, the Central Valley. The writers who didn't try to make Los Angeles their own or who were actual native Californians (or who had lived here in the childhoods) were able to better capture the sentiment of being from a place that others flock to as a dream, and therefore having no where to dream about. All in all, I think this book was interesting because it taught me some new information about Didion. I much prefer reading her own works however, so I will stick to those in the future.
The main reason why I did not love this collection is that it seemed as if some writers did not step up to the plate and actually "[write] by Joan Didion's Light." While many of them had stories similar to Didion's, about living in New York as a journalist and then coming to Los Angeles, none of them were able to capture her unique style. This led to many of the writers essentially re-writing each other's essays, as almost all of them discussed photos of Didion with her corvette stingray and smoking,
her different homes in Los Angeles, and her fragile figure. I thought that the two essayists which wrote about their own stories during the same time period in which Didion rose to fame were much more similar to Didion's style. Perhaps this is because those who tried to write about Los Angeles in a later day in age were unable to grasp the same image of what Los Angeles meant to Didion since it is an ever-changing city.
Additionally, some of the writers who weren't from California weren't able to appropriately capture Didion's feelings about Los Angeles—as none of them touched on the abrupt differences between Northern California and Southern California and, of course, the Central Valley. The writers who didn't try to make Los Angeles their own or who were actual native Californians (or who had lived here in the childhoods) were able to better capture the sentiment of being from a place that others flock to as a dream, and therefore having no where to dream about. All in all, I think this book was interesting because it taught me some new information about Didion. I much prefer reading her own works however, so I will stick to those in the future.
September 29, 2022
It's an arranged marriage for LA & I, so I read books about LA icons from the 70s to try & force myself to love it here. After Pamela De Barres & Eve Babitz, I thought it was Joan Didion's turn, so I read this book of essays inspired by her (& her love of LA).
I knew Didion left New York for LA. (Perfect!) But was surprised to find out she eventually returned to New York. (Damn.) (Even LA icons don't want to stay in LA.)
To be honest, a lot of these essays went over my head. I liked some, got bored in others, & skipped a few. I loved Ann Friedman's. (duh, it's Ann Friedman.) She wrote about "not really liking New York." (Now there's the indoctrination I'm seeking!) Her writing is so 5 star that I'm going to include a snippet here for myself. (I don't expect any of my 9 Goodreads friends to read this far.)
"New York is the prom king. He knows he's great, & he's gonna make it really hard on you if you decide you want to love him. I opted out. & from my now-comfortable perch on the dry & cracking western edge of this continent, I look back at friends who have stuck things out with New York & think, 'how? why?'
For one thing, they share a willingness to consider New York from a cinematic distance, overlooking the city's many irritants except insofar as they add grit & drama to their personal story. In day-to-day terms, this manifests as complaining vigorously about subway hardships & bedbug plagues, & then posting Instagram photos of the skyline at sunset. A not insignificant number of the New York lovers I know--especially the twenty-somethings-- are actually pretty unhappy day-to-day. I picture the prom king's date sitting near him at a party, ignored but still kind of proud to be in the room & on his arm--& increasingly offended at the suggestion that she should break up with him for someone who dotes on her more.
Oh, how California dotes! Sun yourself. Take the car. Let your guard down. Breathe deeply, & you'll smell the jasmine & dusty sage. Show up twenty minutes late. (Just text 'Sorry-- traffic.') Explore the weirder corners of your spirituality. Describe yourself, without sarcasm, as a writer slash entrepreneur. Work from home. Spread out. Wear the comfortable pants."
Wow that was a long quote, nearly the whole essay. But it's good & wise & funny... Too bad I still wish I lived in New York.
I knew Didion left New York for LA. (Perfect!) But was surprised to find out she eventually returned to New York. (Damn.) (Even LA icons don't want to stay in LA.)
To be honest, a lot of these essays went over my head. I liked some, got bored in others, & skipped a few. I loved Ann Friedman's. (duh, it's Ann Friedman.) She wrote about "not really liking New York." (Now there's the indoctrination I'm seeking!) Her writing is so 5 star that I'm going to include a snippet here for myself. (I don't expect any of my 9 Goodreads friends to read this far.)
"New York is the prom king. He knows he's great, & he's gonna make it really hard on you if you decide you want to love him. I opted out. & from my now-comfortable perch on the dry & cracking western edge of this continent, I look back at friends who have stuck things out with New York & think, 'how? why?'
For one thing, they share a willingness to consider New York from a cinematic distance, overlooking the city's many irritants except insofar as they add grit & drama to their personal story. In day-to-day terms, this manifests as complaining vigorously about subway hardships & bedbug plagues, & then posting Instagram photos of the skyline at sunset. A not insignificant number of the New York lovers I know--especially the twenty-somethings-- are actually pretty unhappy day-to-day. I picture the prom king's date sitting near him at a party, ignored but still kind of proud to be in the room & on his arm--& increasingly offended at the suggestion that she should break up with him for someone who dotes on her more.
Oh, how California dotes! Sun yourself. Take the car. Let your guard down. Breathe deeply, & you'll smell the jasmine & dusty sage. Show up twenty minutes late. (Just text 'Sorry-- traffic.') Explore the weirder corners of your spirituality. Describe yourself, without sarcasm, as a writer slash entrepreneur. Work from home. Spread out. Wear the comfortable pants."
Wow that was a long quote, nearly the whole essay. But it's good & wise & funny... Too bad I still wish I lived in New York.
June 26, 2024
This ended up reading as more of a criticism of Joan than I expected. Every essay is centered one Didion, from the way she looks to her writing to her home, that’s the whole point of this. However, I expected almost more of a celebration, but some felt accusatory. “Joan, you promised me an LA I’d love - now I’m stuck living in this hellhole!” (not a real quote but basically). I guess as someone who has lived in the sfv her whole life, I’m always wary of those who criticize Los Angeles so harshly, especially those who moved here and quickly moved away. There’s so much to LA beyond brentwood, santa monica or even los feliz, but then again, I’m just a butthurt valley girl.
The essays did carry some beautiful prose, particularly those that mentioned Joan’s real estate tycoon of a family history. My favorite aspect of it was even though some criticism of Joan was made and even valid, one can’t deny her influence. Her style, her prose, her cooking all of it seeps through LA like a virus you catch once you read her work.
The essays did carry some beautiful prose, particularly those that mentioned Joan’s real estate tycoon of a family history. My favorite aspect of it was even though some criticism of Joan was made and even valid, one can’t deny her influence. Her style, her prose, her cooking all of it seeps through LA like a virus you catch once you read her work.
February 16, 2023
The late Joan Didion made journalism appear to be rock and roll. At the time, her style was unorthodox, her cadence hypnotic. Her writing inspires. The collection of essays in this book was penned by two, perhaps three, generations of journalists and essayist and novelists. Because of the variety, some essays left me tasting ash in my mouth, possibly due to how their metaphors did not land, and how their writing attempts to straddle the line between Didion's style and theirs were painfully overwrought. Though, at other times reading how authors engage with Didion threatened me with sobs, and with less cynicism I enjoyed Steph Cha's Points on a Map, and Heather John Fogarty's On Keeping a Cookbook.
July 1, 2021
I was really excited to find out about this, but it was a lot of the same. I had hoped that it was going to be more writing in the style of Joan Didion, and some of the writers actually achieve an 8 out of 10, but really it was more about how these writers really love Didion, or would really like to be a part of her world on Second Los Angeles. I had read a few pieces published elsewhere and had liked them, but all of these collected together end up kind of one note. And to my horror, so many of these writers are talking about their experiences of Los Angeles when they first moved here in the 2000s, which made me feel old -- I have lived in LA for HOW LONG?
October 27, 2024
In this set of recollections, admirers of her have shared insights into her legacy . They range from inhabitants of la, to those that have admired the area, but in order to comes to terms with it have reached to Didion for help in understanding the landscape and her obsession with California as a culture, and her obsession of specific areas. Others resonate with life lessons they have gathered .
A memorable story by Sue wu gives light into Didion’s hopefulness out of a dark area that seems to threaten her .Wu who talks about Joan not allowing her mania to consume her by “not hallowing one out..but instead transforming it into “ a despair in doing”
The despair that is a characterization of the works she has published .
A memorable story by Sue wu gives light into Didion’s hopefulness out of a dark area that seems to threaten her .Wu who talks about Joan not allowing her mania to consume her by “not hallowing one out..but instead transforming it into “ a despair in doing”
The despair that is a characterization of the works she has published .
January 26, 2026
I always enjoy essay anthologies, especially ones about Los Angeles--my home for the last 40 years. The theme here: Didion's LA.
Collections are a great way to discover writers. In this book, one of the writers I enjoyed and related to the most was Alysia Abbott. Like me, she grew up in San Francisco and shared overlapping experiences and a similar time period to my childhood years. I appreciated how Abbott brought in Didion's opinions on the counterculture post Summer of Love, which is a big subject in my own childhood experiences.
I did enjoy that some writers were a bit critical of Joan Didion. As one writer suggested, Didion was a style influencer decades before social media.
Collections are a great way to discover writers. In this book, one of the writers I enjoyed and related to the most was Alysia Abbott. Like me, she grew up in San Francisco and shared overlapping experiences and a similar time period to my childhood years. I appreciated how Abbott brought in Didion's opinions on the counterculture post Summer of Love, which is a big subject in my own childhood experiences.
I did enjoy that some writers were a bit critical of Joan Didion. As one writer suggested, Didion was a style influencer decades before social media.
March 13, 2020
This book gave me all the Didion feels. A gracious and astute collection of essays examining Didion, her work and Los Angeles through her eyes and other LA writers. I thoroughly enjoyed every essay in this book. It was so interesting to read how these authors connected with Didion and with LA. I highly reccomend this one! And It's ok if your not a Didion superfan, although you might be by the end of this book.
•
Thank You to the publisher for sending me this book opinions are my own.
•
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
•
Thank You to the publisher for sending me this book opinions are my own.
•
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
December 6, 2020
“I think of Didion, calling me west, calling me HERE — to where the sky is open and the way is free.”
This is an eclectic collection of essays that serves as an homage both to Joan and Los Angeles. Each essay takes on a different topic — Joan’s photographs, her recipes, this essay of hers or that, her myth, her reality — intermingled with the authors’ own remembrances and life lessons learned. I can’t say any one essay touched me especially, but I enjoyed learning about the breadth of Joan’s influence on practicing writers today.
This is an eclectic collection of essays that serves as an homage both to Joan and Los Angeles. Each essay takes on a different topic — Joan’s photographs, her recipes, this essay of hers or that, her myth, her reality — intermingled with the authors’ own remembrances and life lessons learned. I can’t say any one essay touched me especially, but I enjoyed learning about the breadth of Joan’s influence on practicing writers today.
April 5, 2020
I deeply loved this book and was inspired and uplifted by this collection. Every story was unique in detail but similar in admiration for Joan Didion. As someone who adores Didion, I enjoyed the process of learning more about her through the eyes and words of writers who are as moved by her work as I am. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is already a Joan Didion fan and to anyone who hasn't yet discovered her but wants to take the first step in that journey.
September 6, 2023
I do love Joan and I loved how these essays painted LA from different viewpoints with sweet nostalgia but some of the essays didn’t really do it for me.
This took me a long time to read because I’ve been in a reading rut and is the kind of book you can come back to, forget about, then come back to and start a new essay again. Thanks Joan for being such an icon and influence to us all
This took me a long time to read because I’ve been in a reading rut and is the kind of book you can come back to, forget about, then come back to and start a new essay again. Thanks Joan for being such an icon and influence to us all
February 10, 2021
It was only okay.
September 13, 2024
Excellent essays.
July 13, 2023
Many short essays for the Didion fan who knows and loves LA. Some really reached me, others not so much.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews