brandy777's review
3.0
A literary sketchbook full of snap snippets of colors from the south
This is an autobiographical account of her travels through the south in the late 80s and 90s, and her coming to terms with what makes the south the South. She also compares the states a lot to the comfort of her home in California. Her unbiased almost reporting way of writing also helps since it displays everything as it is; never swaying to one opinion or the other.
This is an autobiographical account of her travels through the south in the late 80s and 90s, and her coming to terms with what makes the south the South. She also compares the states a lot to the comfort of her home in California. Her unbiased almost reporting way of writing also helps since it displays everything as it is; never swaying to one opinion or the other.
pearseanderson's review
4.5
OK, wow she's good. Speaking to a world I was not born into and will never, exactly, know.
renegadegrocerycart's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Interesting observations on the south, if tinged with that not-from-the-south judgement. Extremely weird to read about Meridian and other hyper-specific places I know (Widemann’s; the church in Poet Gibson) from Joan Didion’s point of view.
alisarae's review
Joan Didion takes beautiful notes and I wish my journal entries were as insightful and full of promise as hers. However, this is just a collection of notes and memories, snippets of conversations or passing billboards. It's not that motivating to keep reading to get to the next part because there isn't continuity. The most interesting part was her conversations with white people in Mississippi just after desegregation. Again, just snippets, and I wish there had been more there. She, from what I understand in this book, never wrote an essay on her experiences roadtripping through the South. Ah well.