Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Celebrated, iconic, and indispensable, Joan Didion's first work of nonfiction, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, is considered a watershed moment in American writing. First published in 1968, the collection was critically praised as one of the "best prose written in this country." More than perhaps any other book, this collection by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era captures the unique time and place of Joan Didion's focus, exploring subjects such as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up in California and the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture. As Joyce Carol Oates remarked: "[Didion] has been an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice, partly eulogistic, partly despairing; always in control".
- Joan Didion (Author)
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication Date: 10-28-2008
- Page Count - 256
- Paperback
- Age Range - Adult
- Classics
- Product Dimensions - 5.4 W x 8.2 H x 0.7 D
- ISBN-13 - 9780374531386
Web ID: 14376826
Crisp
There is something about Didion’s writing that is so crisp and inviting yet at the same time, impossible to really put my finger on what makes it so brilliant. Though this collection is named after one of the essays (which really transports you to a different time and place), the essays that I dog-eared many pages where “On Keeping a Notebook”, “On Self-Respect” and “On Morality”. I know I’ll be returning to these essays with a scalpel to dissect every line. WARNING: Don’t read before bedtime because time will fly and you’ll be staying up past your bedtime.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Good Read
My son, a voracious reader of any genre, really liked this book. He recommends it. I love that Macy's sells books from Barnes and Noble!