"Slouching Towards Bethlehem" by Joan Didion is a collection of essays that provide a captivating insight into the author's experiences and observations, particularly focusing on 1960s California. Didion's writing style is described as lyrical, mysterious, and engaging, requiring careful reading to fully appreciate the imagery she conveys. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from personal reflections on self-respect and keeping a notebook to societal issues such as the cultural milieu of California during that era.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of drug use, violence, social disillusionment, and mental health issues.
From The Publisher:
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."
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1 comment(s)
Didion's writing style is amazing and the lens through which she views the world just as intriguing. Sometimes her work is difficult to read because she is NOT judgmental, even when reporting on the most horrific events/life styles.
What can you read after
Slouching Towards Bethlehem?
About the Author:
Joan Didion's many books include The Year of Magical Thinking, for which she received the National Book Award. She lives in New York City.
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