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