The essays in this book were so specifically topical when they were written that they have become meaningless now. I struggled to recall the events they referred to even though I was aware of most of them when they occurred. I do remember the beating and rape of "The Central Park Jogger," because it was phenomenally mishandled, and I have not been able to read a book by Linda Fairstein years. She was one of the prosecutors who railroaded the young black men found guilty of the crime.
Mostly, this book is just too dated.

I'm not sure what draws me to Joan Didion. Most of her subject matter are about things I absolutely despise and this particular collection is extremely dated and out of touch to my Midwest, working class sensibilities. It shouldn't come as a surprise that my favorite essays were not about California, or the politicians therein. Even still, I can't deny Joan Didion's gift for analysis, detail, and understanding. She may cover subjects that I would otherwise never touch, but she does so with such care and talent that I can't help but admire her work ethic. I do not think Joan Didion and I would have gotten along, had we gotten a chance to meet, but that doesn't mean I hate her work. She's probably the only Californian I'll ever mourn. When the San Andreas fault one days sinks that uppity little shithole into the ocean I'll always wish she was alive to eulogize the occasion. I don't think anyone else would come close to doing it justice otherwise.

A wildly timely book, given that it’s just over three decades old. Essays in here about embedded political reporters unable to turn away from the blatant image generation of the two major parties, about California’s growing wildfire problem, about capitalist decline/displacement and the loss of jobs for worse jobs, even about the Hollywood writers strike (of 1988, instead of 2023).

This is my first Didion. I had no idea what to expect. She’s fascinating even at the sentence level, a clear lover of subordinate, dependent, and nonessential clauses and of parenthetical asides. Fewer periods even in her longer paragraphs. I also had no idea how dryly funny she can be when she wants to. Loved her breakdown of Michael Dukakis’s absurd games of catch with his press secretary on airport tarmacs during his 1988 campaign.

Didion has an incredible ability to take a given news item (the Democratic and Republican national conventions of 1988, the design update of the Los Angeles Times in 1989, the trials of the Central Park Five) and place it within the larger context of history, geography, and the culture, sentiments, and systems of the day. She brings you to a ten-thousand-foot view of things so cleanly and smoothly.

I only wish she were still here to keep skewering. Definitely would like to check out more of her work.

Sometimes laborious. Sometimes fascinating. Often too outside my wheelhouse to be personally meaningful. Still, a great look at events and politics that shaped my late childhood and early adult years.

Joan REALLY doesn't like NYC.

What a ride down memory lane! After Henry! When the US was in post-Vietnam mode, when PAtty Hearst became a household name, and later the Central Park Jogger’s case, all against the backdrop of Presidential Election Campaigns/Party Conventions -

Didion" [of course] “the election would fall to whoever told the story best, to whoever had the best tellers, the best fixers.”

Very powerful how Didion relates these events and goings on as directly related to the power of the media to engineers & shape truths creating men, cities and movements, and issues.

How LA's development had every bit to do with media spin and wars, as did Hearst's "kidnapping", and well, all the rest of it ... and all of that still going on, but no longer under Didion's sharp eye and exacto blade .

Joan Didion’s sharp as a razor skills of observation cut to the heart of narratives . Narrative as cultural contracts silently written to construct shared life experiences are illustrated whether it be the ludicrous lives of the Reagan’s , Patty Hearst or the creation of New York’s Central Park as a symbol of corruption . Joan’s ability to nail the bs meter of life is incredibly profound . To read words so spot on to read them literally kicks the air from your lungs to where you have to pause and catch your breath.

The famed Reagan presidency a.k.a. reign is simplified through a mere act of ordering outrageously expensive presidential dinnerware layered in 24k gold the reason? The set in the White House already in existence did not have finger bowls . All this happening right under the sounds of hammers removing The Carter administrations solar panels on the roof . Ahhhh the 80s such a cartoon time .

The subject matter appealed to me because I have lived in most of the areas and time periods covered here . I see some of the other reviewers are not as fortunate and so it did not resonate .
For me Joan always resonates with me . A powerful force of writing that is like no other but perhaps James Baldwin . I hope to finish all of her books this year .

I love Joan Didion and these are a mix of her essays from the late 80's / early 90's and are split between pieces on politics, LA, and then one on New York. Of course, given the dates some are just well, at this point, do I care (does anyone?) about the LA mayoral race in 1988? On the other hand, the distance of time makes some strike all the more. Her last essay on New York focuses on the case of the Central Park jogger and given what we now know, that the 'Central Park 5' were all actually innocent and basically coerced into confessions, her critique of the case and its handling (by police and perhaps even more so by the media) is made all the more trenchant.

[3.5] Reading this collection is like time traveling back to the 1980s with a savvy, sharp-eyed guide. Most of the essays are focused on Los Angeles local politics and feel very dated - although still worth reading. Her essay "Sentimental Journey" about injustice and the Central Park jogger rape case, written years before new DNA evidence came to light, is brilliant.

There's not much I can say about Joan Didion. Just read her. Start with Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and continue from there. Skip around if you want, but make sure you read the essays "In the Islands" and "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream", and as much of Salvador and Miami as you can. I can't imagine you'll be sorry!

I think the remainder bookstore where I bought this some years ago had it on the fiction shelf, so when I finally got around to it I was expecting another tightly strung Didion novel. Instead, it’s a collection of articles on the usual subjects: politics, culture, society, money, power, etc, etc, mostly set in LA, with some Washington and New York thrown in, from the ‘80s (so a bit dated, except maybe for where the name “Trump” could substitute for “Reagan” in some passages on an “outsider” administration coming to Washington. The usual good writing and stimulating observations, but generally lacking the edge I really like in her fiction.

Didion was a powerful writer who - at her best - probed the nature of writing. This collection of her essays from the 1980s rebounds between Los Angeles and New York. As expected, there are pithy phrases and switchblade adverbs. Her essay on Nancy Reagan is surgical in its precision.

This collection of essays - like the 1980s itself - is fragmented, lacking a melody or rhythm to create a meaningful soundtrack. But the disturbances. The provocations. The oddity. The confusion. Didion captures the wrongness and insecurity, revealing the gateway to many of our current tragedies and troubles.