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Interviews | January 3, 2012

Jill Owens: IMG Naomi Benaron: The Powells.com Interview



Naomi BenaronRunning the Rift is the most recent winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, as awarded by Barbara Kingsolver. It's also an... Continue »
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2 Beaverton Literature- A to Z

A Book of Common Prayer

by Joan Didion

A Book of Common Prayer Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Writing with the telegraphic swiftness and microscopic sensitivity that have made her one of our most distinguished journalists, Joan Didion creates a shimmering novel of innocence and evil.A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in the derelict Central American nation of Boca Grande. Grace Strasser-Mendana controls much of the country's wealth and knows virtually all of its secrets; Charlotte Douglas knows far too little. "Immaculate of history, innocent of politics," she has come to Boca Grande vaguely and vainly hoping to be reunited with her fugitive daughter. As imagined by Didion, her fate is at once utterly particular and fearfully emblematic of an age of conscienceless authority and unfathomable violence.

Review:

"This long-awaited and much-praised novel is similar to, but not as good as, Didion's earlier novel of ennui and despair, Play It As It Lays, Like Maria in the earlier novel, Charlotte Douglas attempts to piece her shattered life together by lying low, committing rationally irrational acts, and adopting Hemingwayan stoicism. The novel is more striking stylistically, although the ironies are too often forced, than for the story it tells. It is the story of Charlotte, whose once-proper daughter joins revolutionaries and burns a plane, destroying her mother's already tenuous understanding of the world just as she destroys the plane. The story is narrated by Grace Strasser-Mendana, friend to Charlotte, who is dying of cancer." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

About the Author

Joan Didion was born in California and lives in New York City. She is the author of five novels and seven previous books of nonfiction.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780679754862
Author:
Didion, Joan
Publisher:
Vintage Books
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Central America
Subject:
Americans
Subject:
Missing persons
Subject:
Women -- Central America -- Fiction.
Subject:
Women -- Fiction.
Subject:
Missing persons -- Fiction.
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series:
Vintage International
Series Volume:
4
Publication Date:
19950431
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
272
Dimensions:
8.02x5.18x.60 in. .45 lbs.

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Product details 272 pages Vintage Books USA - English 9780679754862 Reviews:
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