we tell ourselves stories in order to live collected nonfiction

Joan Didion is the Shakespeare of things that don't quite add up. And in Where I Was From Didion shows that California was never the land of the golden dream.

The eight essays in Political Fictions–on censorship in the media, Gingrich, Clinton, Starr, and “compassionate conservatism,” among others–show us how we got to the political scene of today. In After Henry Didion reports on the Reagans, Patty Hearst, and the Central Park jogger case. Miami exposes the secret role this largely Latin city played in the Cold War, from the Bay of Pigs through Watergate. Salvador is a riveting look at the social and political landscape of civil war. The White Album covers the revolutionary politics and the “contemporary wasteland” of the late sixties and early seventies, in pieces on the Manson family, the Black Panthers, and Hollywood. Slouching Towards Bethlehem captures the counterculture of the sixties, its mood and lifestyle, as symbolized by California, Joan Baez, Haight-Ashbury. Now the seven books of nonfiction that appeared between 19 have been brought together into one thrilling collection. And in Where I Was FromDidion shows that California was never the land of the golden dream.Joan Didion’s incomparable and distinctive essays and journalism are admired for their acute, incisive observations and their spare, elegant style. In After HenryDidion reports on the Reagans, Patty Hearst, and the Central Park jogger case. Miamiexposes the secret role this largely Latin city played in the Cold War, from the Bay of Pigs through Watergate. Salvadoris a riveting look at the social and political landscape of civil war. The White Albumcovers the revolutionary politics and the “contemporary wasteland” of the late sixties and early seventies, in pieces on the Manson family, the Black Panthers, and Hollywood. Slouching Towards Bethlehemcaptures the counterculture of the sixties, its mood and lifestyle, as symbolized by California, Joan Baez, Haight-Ashbury. Joan Didion’s incomparable and distinctive essays and journalism are admired for their acute, incisive observations and their spare, elegant style.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live collected nonfiction