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rickyblue's review against another edition
4.0
It's not perfect and it's not as lyrical as some of her other essays but it's a good book.
I've heard many criticisms of this book and I don't think any of them are particularly valid.
Her message may not be deep enough for some other, more intellectual writers but I think it's important because it's sensible and accurate.
I've heard many criticisms of this book and I don't think any of them are particularly valid.
Her message may not be deep enough for some other, more intellectual writers but I think it's important because it's sensible and accurate.
erikawynn's review against another edition
4.0
This book focuses on presidential campaigns from 1988-2000 - I was born in 1990 so have no memory of the Bush #1 and Clinton campaigns, was aware of the Clinton scandal but didn’t know what it was about, and remember Bush/Gore but didn’t comprehend how unprecedented it was. So this was a really illuminating read, especially considering how many people mentioned are still active in politics today. I wish I’d read it during the 2016 election!
s0rry_im_b00ked's review against another edition
4.0
A cogent analysis of insider politics. Joan Didion highlights instances in which the American political process has served the few rather than the many, and explains how political outsiders remain oblivious to the oft-fictitious nature of our republic. My only critique is in regard to the writing style. In my exasperation at having to re-read a particularly long and complex sentence out loud multiple times, I counted 72 words in the offending sentence. This was a great way to kick off 2020, as I found that Didion’s work is still applicable nearly two decades later, and as we have a major election coming up this year!
erikawynn's review against another edition
4.0
This book focuses on presidential campaigns from 1988-2000 - I was born in 1990 so have no memory of the Bush #1 and Clinton campaigns, was aware of the Clinton scandal but didn’t know what it was about, and remember Bush/Gore but didn’t comprehend how unprecedented it was. So this was a really illuminating read, especially considering how many people mentioned are still active in politics today. I wish I’d read it during the 2016 election!
darwin8u's review against another edition
4.0
"This is something one should talk about in another time, in another country."
― Major Jocoaitique to Todd Greentree and Major McKay in Joan Didion's "The West Wing of Oz", Political Fictions.
"History is context"
― Joan Didion
"Joan Didion—and I mean this in the most adoring and complimentary way possible—is a well-known stone cold bitch."
― Madeleine Davies in "Joan Didion's Crème Caramel Must Be Very Hostile", Jezebel, 2/12/15
How could I not forever love Joan Didion? She is a prose goddess who is prepared to burn down every single America's sacred political temples. She takes no prisoners. Reagan is an empty shirt who can hit a mark. George Bush, Sr. Boring. The Clinton campaign? Bottom-feeding, focus-grouped idiots. George W. Bush? A pandering fool for Christ. And I think she actually liked most those politicians as people.
Joan saves her hottest anger for when she is writing about the opinion makers, the political journalist, etc. (I honestly think whenever she switches gears from politicos to the hacks, she puts away the ink and starts to write with blood); and those back-room attorneys plotting Clinton's demise or Clinton's campaign, and the absolute buffoons who try to keep us up-to-date on the horse race of the campaign. That special class of idiots who type the narrative we are supposed to ingest about the moral failings, the moral resurrection, the need for morality in our politicians. She hates them all. It is a delicious thing to watch. The closest emotion I can point to is that feeling I get when I watch Dexter or Hannibal cut up and eat one of their righteous kills. It both disgusts and thrills me.
And yes. Certainly. Didion is part of the game. She is part of the narrative makers she bitches about. However, she is a wiser Buddha, a cooler Jesus, a Moses who can really kick political ass. If I could with ease, hand out to a handful of my favorite writers the secret of eternal life, I would save an early vial for Queen Didion. I can't imagine a written world without her wit, her sideways shivs, her beautiful prose. A political year with out Didion is a political theatre I don't want to watch.
Anyway, this book is made up of eight articles and a forward:
1. Insider Baseball, New York Review of Books, Oct 27, 1988
2. The West Wing of Oz
3. Eyes on the Prize, New York Review of Books, Sep 24, 1992
4. New Gingrich, Superstar
5. Political Pornography
6. Clinton Agonistes, New York Review of Books, Oct 22, 1998
7. Vichy Washington
8. God's Country, New York Review of Books, Nov 2, 2000
Read them. Read them all. We have started a brand new election year and among all the bullshit and political noise, it helps to have a lighthouse, a golden goddess to guide one through the darkness of spin, Luntzcraft and massaged messages to light, truth, and damn good prose.
― Major Jocoaitique to Todd Greentree and Major McKay in Joan Didion's "The West Wing of Oz", Political Fictions.
"History is context"
― Joan Didion
"Joan Didion—and I mean this in the most adoring and complimentary way possible—is a well-known stone cold bitch."
― Madeleine Davies in "Joan Didion's Crème Caramel Must Be Very Hostile", Jezebel, 2/12/15
How could I not forever love Joan Didion? She is a prose goddess who is prepared to burn down every single America's sacred political temples. She takes no prisoners. Reagan is an empty shirt who can hit a mark. George Bush, Sr. Boring. The Clinton campaign? Bottom-feeding, focus-grouped idiots. George W. Bush? A pandering fool for Christ. And I think she actually liked most those politicians as people.
Joan saves her hottest anger for when she is writing about the opinion makers, the political journalist, etc. (I honestly think whenever she switches gears from politicos to the hacks, she puts away the ink and starts to write with blood); and those back-room attorneys plotting Clinton's demise or Clinton's campaign, and the absolute buffoons who try to keep us up-to-date on the horse race of the campaign. That special class of idiots who type the narrative we are supposed to ingest about the moral failings, the moral resurrection, the need for morality in our politicians. She hates them all. It is a delicious thing to watch. The closest emotion I can point to is that feeling I get when I watch Dexter or Hannibal cut up and eat one of their righteous kills. It both disgusts and thrills me.
And yes. Certainly. Didion is part of the game. She is part of the narrative makers she bitches about. However, she is a wiser Buddha, a cooler Jesus, a Moses who can really kick political ass. If I could with ease, hand out to a handful of my favorite writers the secret of eternal life, I would save an early vial for Queen Didion. I can't imagine a written world without her wit, her sideways shivs, her beautiful prose. A political year with out Didion is a political theatre I don't want to watch.
Anyway, this book is made up of eight articles and a forward:
1. Insider Baseball, New York Review of Books, Oct 27, 1988
2. The West Wing of Oz
3. Eyes on the Prize, New York Review of Books, Sep 24, 1992
4. New Gingrich, Superstar
5. Political Pornography
6. Clinton Agonistes, New York Review of Books, Oct 22, 1998
7. Vichy Washington
8. God's Country, New York Review of Books, Nov 2, 2000
Read them. Read them all. We have started a brand new election year and among all the bullshit and political noise, it helps to have a lighthouse, a golden goddess to guide one through the darkness of spin, Luntzcraft and massaged messages to light, truth, and damn good prose.