The World According to Joan Didion
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- 159,00 kr
Publisher Description
INDIE BESTSELLER
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023 by The Millions • B&N Best Books of 2023 • “Shaped by intellectual rigor and artistic grace … McDonnell’s portrait is vibrant, fluent, sensitive, and clarifying.” — Booklist, starred review
An intimate exploration of the life, craft, and legacy of one of the most revered and influential writers, an artist who continues to inspire fans and creatives to cultivate practices of deep attention, rigorous interrogation and beautiful style.
Joan Didion was a writer’s writer; not only a groundbreaking journalist, essayist, novelist and screenwriter, but a keen observer who honed her sights on life’s telling details. Her insights continue to influence creatives and admirers, encouraging them to become close observers of the world, unsentimental critics, and meticulous stylists.
An antidote to a global view that narrows our vision to the smallest screens, The World According To Joan Didion is a meditation on the people, places, and objects that propelled Didion’s prose and an invitation to journalists, storytellers, and life adventurers to “throw themselves into the convulsions of the world,” as she once said.
Evelyn McDonnell, the acclaimed journalist, essayist, critic, feminist, native Californian, and university professor who regularly teaches Didion’s work, is attuned to interpret Didion’s vision for readers today. Inspired by Didion’s own words—from her works both published and unpublished—and informed by the people who knew Didion and those whose lives she shaped, The World According to Joan Didion is an illustrated journey through her life, tracing the path she carved from Sacramento, Portuguese Bend, Los Angeles, and Malibu to Manhattan, Miami, and Hawaii. McDonnell reveals the world as it was seen through Didion’s eyes and explores her work in chapters keyed to the singular physical motifs of her writing: Snake. Typewriter. Hotel. Notebook. Girl. Etc.
One of the first books to be published after the revered writer’s death in 2021, The World According to Joan Didion is a literary companion for those embarking on new journeys and a guide to innovative ways of being. It will radically transform the way you explore the world, and will help you answer the question as you sit in a café, or on a plane or train, pondering the future: What would Joan Didion have seen?
The World According to Joan Didion includes 19 black-and-white illustrations and photos throughout.
A Definitive Joan Didion Biography: Explore Didion's life through unique motifs like the Snake, the Typewriter, and the Hotel, drawing from both her published and unpublished works to reveal the woman behind the words.New Journalism Pioneer: Written by an acclaimed professor who teaches Didion's work, this book offers a rigorous and sensitive look at the craft that influenced generations of writers.The California Dream: Trace her path from Sacramento to Los Angeles and beyond, examining her deep, complex relationship with the Golden State and the American empire.An Essential Guide for Writers: One of the first books published after her death, this deep dive into Didion's world offers inspiration and insight for a new generation of creatives and storytellers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Loyola Marymount University journalism professor McDonnell (Queens of Noise) delivers a disappointing ode to Joan Didion, recreating the author's life by meditating on "object that figured large in Didion's imaginary," including gold, snakes, hotels, and orchids. McDonnell begins with gold, discussing how Didion's teenage fascination with her '49er ancestors eventually transformed into a skepticism of the American imperial project they had participated in. The chapter on "man" delves into Didion's marriage to writer John Gregory Dunne, noting that he had a fierce temper and they fought often before reconciling during a stay at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, McDonnell often focuses on the superficial aspects of Didion's life, dwelling on her fear of snakes, love of "fast cars as well as beautiful homes" (she drove a "yellow Corvette Stingray and lived in a Hollywood mansion"), and penchant for fine dining (she and Dunne "loved to eat out and had expensive tastes"). McDonnell praises her subject's prose—often to the point of hagiography—but the overall impression given of Didion is that she was more of a celebrity than a serious writer. Diverting and insubstantial, this only scratches the surface of Didion's enduring appeal.
