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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
"Part of it is simply what looks right to the eye, sounds right to the ear. I am at home in the West. The hills of the coastal ranges look "right" to me, the particular flat expanse of the Central Valley comforts my eye. The place names have the ring of real places to me. I can pronounce the names of the rivers, and recognize the common trees and snakes. I am easy here in a way I am not easy in other places"
challenging
informative
fast-paced
On the South (notes from 1970): "The time warp: the Civil War was yesterday, but 1960 is spoken of as if it were about three hundred years ago."
Her notebooks are as inspiring and humbling as her finished essays.
I love these glimpses into her journals and unfiltered thinking. It's a slim book, however, and a deeper selection of her musings would have been welcomed, perhaps providing more of a cohesive narrative arc.
I received a free ARC from Alfred A. Knopf from a Goodreads giveaway.
I received a free ARC from Alfred A. Knopf from a Goodreads giveaway.
I will start by saying I think she's a brilliant writer. No word misplaced. With a sharp efficiency and economy of words and sentences she can convey an image, feeling or emotion so eloquently. But I don't think this should've been my first read of hers.
This is a collection of scrap notes, journal entries, diary excerpts from two writing research trips that she never published. First was a month long road trip through the deep south in the 70s and another was a trip to SF during the Patty Hearst trial.. the conversations and observations she put down on paper are actually quite saying and emotive... but as a collective work compiled in a book, it was very discongruent and random. Maybe because I listened to the audio version, it made it harder to follow... but there's no story, plot, start or finish... it's a series of random writings strung together... and yes as good as the actual writing prowess was, the compilation could've been done much better..
Start with another of her actual books.. that's what I'll be doing next.
This is a collection of scrap notes, journal entries, diary excerpts from two writing research trips that she never published. First was a month long road trip through the deep south in the 70s and another was a trip to SF during the Patty Hearst trial.. the conversations and observations she put down on paper are actually quite saying and emotive... but as a collective work compiled in a book, it was very discongruent and random. Maybe because I listened to the audio version, it made it harder to follow... but there's no story, plot, start or finish... it's a series of random writings strung together... and yes as good as the actual writing prowess was, the compilation could've been done much better..
Start with another of her actual books.. that's what I'll be doing next.
adventurous
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
A collection of vignettes that would otherwise be uninteresting were it not for Didion.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
I did enjoy this but not nearly as much as Didion’s other books. Miami was both more focused and closer to her journalism because it was her notes during a specific deep dive into Miamian politics at the time. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is also more focused, in that it felt (because it was) like each essay had a specific theme and thesis. South and West, by comparison, was really only loosely bound by Didion looking for understanding of a place she didn’t understand well and seemed reluctant to spend the time to get to know. There are repeated references to wanting to hurry up the trip and get back on a plane to California, and it shows in the cursory and judgmental way she approaches her subject of the rural South.
Overall I did feel like I gained something by reading it, but Didion’s perspective here is (a self-aware) outsider uncomfortable in her current environment, and as a result most of the book felt simplistic in a way that was disappointing and left me wanting more, especially in the form of a response from a local.
Overall I did feel like I gained something by reading it, but Didion’s perspective here is (a self-aware) outsider uncomfortable in her current environment, and as a result most of the book felt simplistic in a way that was disappointing and left me wanting more, especially in the form of a response from a local.