A review by kricketa
The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty
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.