REVIEW | Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

[@theredheadisreading2251]

Very interesting video as always, Terri! I can’t say I’m super interested in Didion, but I enjoyed hearing your thoughts. ❤

[@debcarroll8192]

Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is one of the most powerfully written books I have ever read.

[@CionMohler]

The poem by WB Yeats called The Second Coming needs to be taken into consideration when reading Slouching. A line in the poem says Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. That’s what Didion is talking about. The hippy culture, which included drugs, sex and rock and roll. And not everyone succumb to that culture. You really should read Tom Wolfe and The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test to get a feel for it.

[@Eldertalk]

That sounds like a fascinating book and I'd like to read it, especially since I lived in California when I was a teenager in the sixties and probably remember things she wrote about. You mentioned an awareness of WWII and I did have that awareness as my father's Army uniform hung in my closet for years and he would talk about his Army years.

[@MsTerriB]

@Eldertalk I hope you try out Joan Didion's essays. Both the book I talked about here as well as The White Album. I think they both capture California of the 60s. Didion's writing may not be for everyone, but her essays are important as a documentation of a place and time.