The White Album

Perfect.

Some of the essays in this collection drag, but then the whole book is held up by the handful of great ones, like the titular essay, the ones about Hollywood, and a few others.

need to reread. I did not realize the sheer magnitude of the post-pandemic joan didion personal essay industrial complex until I saw her prose and realized every medium and substack user is in some way derivative of her........

This one is hit-or-miss for me, but whew, when it hits, it really hits.

I think Didion gives ungenerous takes on some things–feminism, for instance–but I still enjoy reading her biting take on things even when I disagree with her. Her style works better for me when she's talking about (or incorporating) personal stuff. If you live/grew up in California in the 70's, there are some nice time capsules here (I can't believe I loved an essay about CalTrans?).

There's also a really fun, if also really unfair, critique of author Doris Lessing here, which is worth the price of the book for me.

I mean, it's Joan Didion.

it is nice when anyone can eloquently transcribe their thoughts.