I'm moving to LA in two weeks, and so naturally my foolproof method of preparation has been to read as much Joan Didion as possible.
No one writes about California like she does. Since I have read so much of her work, this is not my favorite, but that is not saying much because I love everything she writes.
What a fascinating way to tackle the history of Didion's home state, with a seamless combination of history in her family and her community. She is not quick to romanticize the experience of growing up in California and often criticizes choices made by government officials, culturemakers, and her own mother.

For lovers of: California, The Donner Party, social commentary, razor-sharp writing, and coming to terms with one's homeplace.

“To read these crossing accounts and diaries is to be struck by the regularity with which a certain apprehension of darkness enters the quest, a shadow of moral ambiguity that becomes steadily more pervasive until that moment when the traveler realizes that the worst of the Sierra is behind him. ‘The Summit is crossed!’ one such diary reads. ‘We are in California! Far away in the haze the dim outlines of the Sacramento Valley are discernible!’”

Read it for a California history course, so I read it over most of a semester. Unique look at this state that I'm glad I read. It was my first exposure to the work of Joan Didion; it convinced me I'd like to read more of her work.

Como escritora, Didion me parece absolutamente magistral. Tiene una redacción limpísima y aunque parece que se está desviando siempre es capaz de encauzarlo todo de una manera magistral y salir ilesa de su propio galimatías estructural.

Luego la temática de los ensayos es cosa a parte. Especialmente cautivadores son aquellos que tratan temas del true crime incluso antes de que el propio término fuera acuñado. Otros son más difíciles de leer, más tostón. Pero en general pinta una imagen muy vívida de una época efímera en un lugar muy concreto en el tiempo.