Where I Was From discussion

The book cover is a picture of San Mateo tract homes that look like they were excreted out by the sea gulls. It is close to San Francisco Airport, with the San Bruno Mtn on one side and the Bay on the other. The scene reminds me of Malvina Reynolds' sarcastic song "Little houses, on the hillside, made of ticky-tack."

It's widely available from Amazon and B&N.

Didion's subject is her disillusionment with an artifical history that at one point she calls "paradise lost." A kidding of ourselves about a glorious past now lost somehow, but really was never there.

It's a serious book of several essays united by theme. Read it carefully, and you will recognize the same mythologizing in Texas. While California is the subject matter of these essays, it is also incidental. It could be Texas, or anywhere.

It's widely available from Amazon and B&N.

Johnt wrote: "The book cover is a picture of San Mateo tract homes that look like they were excreted out by the sea gulls. It is close to San Francisco Airport, with the San Bruno Mtn on one side and the Bay on ..."

Little Houses...my boryfriend's mom used to sing and play that on guitar. I always wondered who wrote that song. thank you for enlightening me!