Thoughts on Joan Didion (and probably missing the point)
Joan Didion, ‘New Journalist’ Who Explored Culture and Chaos, Dies at 87
For a sliver at least of my generation she made us citizens of California, or perhaps wish we were.
By the strength of her prose she took our adolescent Beach-Boy puppy-love and gave it an intoxicating depth and sense of physical, cultural and metaphoric place for us folks who had left home and were looking to, or how to, plant roots somewhere.
I never ended up living in California, the spell lost its grip as my roots lodged and occupied me elsewhere, but there’s an aura to the south created by Didion (and Chandler and Stegner) that still retains its allure.
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