cayleigh's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
This book is best for someone who hasn't read works of Joan Didion before as it largely relied on her existing work. It was very Didion-esque in that in was part history, part literary criticism, part biography. The main advantage of reading this was that it helped me contextualize many of the things that I've read of Didion's but struggled to place within greater historical context.
kricketa's review against another edition
3.0
I've had a copy of this kicking around the house for a few years and decided the time had come to read it when Didion passed away this past December. In retrospect, I might have spent that time better by re-reading some of my favorites by her, or picking up her titles that I haven't read yet, but at some point I decided it would feel really good to read this doorstop to completion, so I did.
I don't have a lot to say that hasn't been mentioned by other reviewers, but for my own sake-
-Daugherty didn't speak directly with Didion for this project, so most of what comes directly from her can be found in her own work.
-It's more of a Joan Didion-adjacent biography than a biography of Didion herself. There was almost as much information about Didion's brother-in-law, Dominick Dunne, as there was about Didion herself. Didion's own brother, on the other hand, gets about 3 mentions. There's a lot of information about what is happening in the world as it informs Didion's work and I did appreciate this, but sometimes it made the book feel disjointed. (Ex: at the end, when John & Quintana are both having health catastrophes and suddenly the reader is thrown into an overview of Abu Ghraib.)
-Several of the sources that Daugherty does manage to speak directly to are somewhat random (the people who bought Dunne & Didion's Brentwood house, Quintana's stepson) but get a lot of real estate in the book.
-That said, I do think Daugherty crafts very nice sentences. But I don't know that I would recommend this to anyone in a public library setting unless they have already read everything by Didion and want to know what other people thought of her house or what cabin her brother-in-law stayed in when he was feeling sad.
I don't have a lot to say that hasn't been mentioned by other reviewers, but for my own sake-
-Daugherty didn't speak directly with Didion for this project, so most of what comes directly from her can be found in her own work.
-It's more of a Joan Didion-adjacent biography than a biography of Didion herself. There was almost as much information about Didion's brother-in-law, Dominick Dunne, as there was about Didion herself. Didion's own brother, on the other hand, gets about 3 mentions. There's a lot of information about what is happening in the world as it informs Didion's work and I did appreciate this, but sometimes it made the book feel disjointed. (Ex: at the end, when John & Quintana are both having health catastrophes and suddenly the reader is thrown into an overview of Abu Ghraib.)
-Several of the sources that Daugherty does manage to speak directly to are somewhat random (the people who bought Dunne & Didion's Brentwood house, Quintana's stepson) but get a lot of real estate in the book.
-That said, I do think Daugherty crafts very nice sentences. But I don't know that I would recommend this to anyone in a public library setting unless they have already read everything by Didion and want to know what other people thought of her house or what cabin her brother-in-law stayed in when he was feeling sad.
chawkinsknell's review against another edition
When I found out Didion did not condone this biography, I just felt I couldn’t read it.
bkish's review against another edition
5.0
I cannot say enough compliments about this biography by Tracy Daugherty. It is Outstanding and should be a model for other biographers. Joan is a product of the various eras and places where she has lived. Tracy includes all of that covering events of sixties and seventies and current and life in NYC and in Los Angeles. He tells her story with objectivity and it is stark. She was a mixed bag and mostly admired. It is also about her husbands family - the Dunnes and her daughter with a bizarre name Quintana Roo. At the age of almost 80 she saw her husband and daughter die. As you would expect from Joan she is the survivor.
This man can write and tell a story...
This man can write and tell a story...
adambwriter's review against another edition
3.0
What a gift to witness Joan Didion grow, and grow up. She was always a great writer. She became a great person. I admire no one more than the person who can face the truth and then change because they've faced it.
I wasn't a big fan of the style, here, though I do understand the author had to write this without Didion's cooperation. If you've read all of Didion's work and seen her interviews, there's not a whole lot to be gained. That said, the detail (which is fairly criticised as being overwhelming) and chronology, and the inclusion of stories happening/lives being lived in close proximity to Didion's, while at first irritating (as overkill/unnecessary), eventually made a lot of sense. If you're writing about a writer who is always looking for the threads, why not include the threads? I think we get closer to a truth that way.
I'm not sure I can forgive the biographer for disillusioning me about Didion's personality--oh, we'd have never been very good friends--but it's safe to say she remains my favorite writer.
I wasn't a big fan of the style, here, though I do understand the author had to write this without Didion's cooperation. If you've read all of Didion's work and seen her interviews, there's not a whole lot to be gained. That said, the detail (which is fairly criticised as being overwhelming) and chronology, and the inclusion of stories happening/lives being lived in close proximity to Didion's, while at first irritating (as overkill/unnecessary), eventually made a lot of sense. If you're writing about a writer who is always looking for the threads, why not include the threads? I think we get closer to a truth that way.
I'm not sure I can forgive the biographer for disillusioning me about Didion's personality--oh, we'd have never been very good friends--but it's safe to say she remains my favorite writer.
smbla's review against another edition
4.0
A biography of Joan Didion is not a simple chronicle-Didion is complex, contradictory, caustic and compassionate-just to stay at the beginning of the alphabet. For those that know and love Didion's work-her perceptive and at times contrary positions on major events and her mastery of prose are a well known commodity. If you have found Didion recently then love and loss in A Year Of Magical Thinking or Blue Nights is your Didion barometer.
I have been a longtime fan of Joan Didion and was excited to tackle a literary biography. The Last Love Song is the life of Didion-her Sacramento childhood, magazine work in NYC, marriage to John Gregory Dunne, Hollywood and screenwriting, adoption of a her daughter Quintana, sister-in-law to Dominick Dunne, relocation to NYC and suffering back to back losses of Dunne and Quintana. Like Didion does in her own work, Daugherty is unflinching in her portrayal of her subject including where fact and fiction blur. I must admit there were several times I did not either agree or understand Didion's motivations and/or reactions in her marriage or with her family-they rang true but were messy.
As with any discussion of Didion you get a tremendous historical narrative. Daugherty takes you from the Manson murders to Abu Grhaib-I had forgotten about Jerry Brown's failed presidential bid. Nor had I ever really considered that Didion and Sylvia Plath were fairly close contemporaries-both having worked at Mademoiselle and staying at the Barbizon Hotel in NY. I had and interesting moment of thinking if Plath had lived would they have in fact commented on each other's works?
After reading The Last Love Song I appreciated Didion even more as a real commentator of our times and Daugherty's handling of Didion's life and work-she does not try and explain her subject-she presents her life and her works and lets the reader decide. I imagine that is what Didion herself would do.
I have been a longtime fan of Joan Didion and was excited to tackle a literary biography. The Last Love Song is the life of Didion-her Sacramento childhood, magazine work in NYC, marriage to John Gregory Dunne, Hollywood and screenwriting, adoption of a her daughter Quintana, sister-in-law to Dominick Dunne, relocation to NYC and suffering back to back losses of Dunne and Quintana. Like Didion does in her own work, Daugherty is unflinching in her portrayal of her subject including where fact and fiction blur. I must admit there were several times I did not either agree or understand Didion's motivations and/or reactions in her marriage or with her family-they rang true but were messy.
As with any discussion of Didion you get a tremendous historical narrative. Daugherty takes you from the Manson murders to Abu Grhaib-I had forgotten about Jerry Brown's failed presidential bid. Nor had I ever really considered that Didion and Sylvia Plath were fairly close contemporaries-both having worked at Mademoiselle and staying at the Barbizon Hotel in NY. I had and interesting moment of thinking if Plath had lived would they have in fact commented on each other's works?
After reading The Last Love Song I appreciated Didion even more as a real commentator of our times and Daugherty's handling of Didion's life and work-she does not try and explain her subject-she presents her life and her works and lets the reader decide. I imagine that is what Didion herself would do.
jaclynday's review against another edition
3.0
Early on, Daugherty notes that this will be a literary biography. (Also mentions he doesn’t do “dishy” biographies.) I’m fine with both those things. But–reader be warned–he wasn’t kidding about the literary part. While a very fine biography, it’s clear that the distance from the subject hurt the end result. Daugherty interprets and theorizes about her work vs. her life almost frantically from afar, perhaps making up for the fact that Didion (and her close friends, supposedly) did not cooperate with the writing. He is anxious for intimacy with the subject, does not really achieve it, and settles for a very good chronology coupled with musings on what cultural or political or personal event influenced Didion’s work. I think time is better spent reading (or re-reading) Didion’s actual writing instead. I felt like I knew her better there than after reading 600-odd pages about her life.