Reviews

South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion

everybody_h8s_k8's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

iolasbooknook's review

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3.0

3.5
The beginning didn’t interest me so much but by the last 50 or so pages I was completely captivated by her writing and the people between the pages

hannahmadden's review against another edition

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Joan Didion on home:
“The place names have the ring of real places to me. I can pronounce the names of the rivers, and recognize the common trees and snakes. I am easy here in a way that I am not easy in other places.”

marydith's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

ugh queen no one has ever slayed like she slayed 

cestelaine's review against another edition

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4.0

Oh Didion. Let me count the ways I love your words.

I read this while waiting for laundry to do its thing at the laundromat one wet and rainy Sunday and if ever there was a perfect accompaniment to the scenario this is definitely it.

This is a compilation of words from her notebooks during a drive across the South with her Husband in 1970. There is very little about her and John’s thoughts or feelings and the emphasis is very much on capturing their surroundings, the feel, the ideas, and the people they encounter in territory that is clearly less than appealing for her.

I love her dead pan prose. Her crafty observations. Just enough tiny hints at opinion to give you some idea of her thoughts, but mostly just utterly compelling recounting of nothing events. Of strange persons and mindsets that seem hyper-fictional but you know are quite real.

Worth it for the gold nuggets of insight in the last 10-15 pages. Beautiful writing.

pgb's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

bripukish's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

lavendercookie's review against another edition

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fast-paced

2.5

I don’t know how to feel…

d_swagata's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.0