Special Offers see all
More at Powell'sRecently Viewed clear list
Original Essays | April 29, 2013
2 comments
|
 
$15.00
New Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsOther titles in the FSG Classics series:
Slouching towards Bethlehem: Essaysby Joan Didion
Staff Pick
Joan Didion's lucid, canny prose style is painstakingly situated around the art of the sentence. Slouching towards Bethlehem, her first collection of nonfiction, serves as a prime example of exactly how well she can wield one. Each of these essays, including one titled "On Self-Respect" (which, years later, I continually refer back to as a philosophical dare to regard the self no matter what incarnation), conveys Didion's remarkable perspective and her ability to detail, without sentimentality, a full sense of whatever she trains her shrewd gaze on. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, forty years after its first publication, the essential portrait of America— particularly California—in the sixties. It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture. Joan Didion is the author of several novels and works of nonfiction, including Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Miami, Salvador, After Henry, and The Year of Magical Thinking. She lives in New York City. Universally acclaimed when it was first published in 1968, Slouching Towards Bethlehem has become a modern classic. More than any other book of its time, this collection captures the mood of 1960s America, especially the center of its counterculture, California. These essays—keynoted by an extraordinary report on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district—all reflect how and why things were then, and are now, falling apart in America: "the center cannot hold," as Yeats had warned. An incisive look at contemporary life, Slouching Towards Bethlehem is still admired as a stylistic masterpiece. "Didion is one of the very few writers of our time who approaches her terrible subject with absolute seriousness, with fear and humility and awe. Her powerful irony is often sorrowful rather than clever," as Joyce Carol Oates noted. "She has been an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice, partly eulogistic, partly despairing; always in control." "A slant vision that is arresting and unique . . . Didion might be an observer from another planet—one so edgy and alert that she ends up knowing more about our own world than we know ourselves."—Anne Tyler "In her portraits of people, Didion is not out to expose but to understand, and she shows us actors and millionaires, doomed brides and naive acid-trippers, left wing ideologues and snobs of the Hawaiian aristocracy in a way that makes them neither villainous nor glamorous, but alive and botched and often mournfully beautiful . . . A rich display of some of the best prose written today in this country."—Dan Wakefield, The New York Times Book Review "This is not a new book, but a re-release of a classic book of essays (that has been previously 'released'). Nearly four decades have passed since these works of reportage were first published in places like the Saturday Evening Post and New York Times Magazine, but they are as present and pertinent as ever. Didion crafted the story of 1960s California, but this collection is as much an ode to life, and humanity's myriad imperfections . . . Without overstating the obvious, she delicately weaves together nuances that collectively reflect the melancholy of marriage that leads a wife to murder. Didion tells it as she sees it . . . Beyond the notorious love, peace and happiness, Didion found broken lives. Some are affirming, some are depressing, but almost all Didion's tales are intensely vibrant."—Brynn Mandel, Republican-American"The story between the lines of Slouching Towards Bethlehem is surely not so much 'California' as it is [Joan Didion's] ability to make us share her passionate sense of it."—Alfred Kazin "A slant vision that is arresting and unique . . . Didion might be an observer from another planet—one so edgy and alert that she ends up knowing more about our own world than we know ourselves."—Anne Tyler Contents: I. LIFE STYLES IN THE GOLDEN LAND Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream John Wayne: A Love Song Where the Kissing Never Stops Comrade Laski, C.P.U.S.A. (M.-L.) 7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38 California Dreaming Marrying Absurd Slouching Towards Bethlehem II. PERSONALS On Keeping a Notebook On Self-Respect I Can't Get That Monster Out of My Mind On Morality On Going Home III. SEVEN PLACES OF THE MIND Notes from a Native Daughter Letter from Paradise, 21° 19' N., 157° 52' W Rock of Ages The Seacoast of Despair Guaymas, Sonora Los Angeles Notebook Goodbye to All That Synopsis:The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, forty years after its first publication, the essential portrait of America— particularly California—in the sixties. It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture. About the AuthorJoan Didion's many books include The Year of Magical Thinking, for which she received the National Book Award. She lives in New York City. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
Other books you might likeRelated SubjectsFiction and Poetry » Anthologies » Essays Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z Fiction and Poetry » Literature » Sale Books History and Social Science » Social Science » Essays
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Follow us on...
|
|||||||||||||||||||
