Where I Was from: A Memoir

Where I Was from: A Memoir - Paperback

$19.00
$19.00
Skip to product information
Where I Was from: A Memoir
  • Where I Was from: A Memoir
Where I Was from: A Memoir - Paperback

Where I Was from: A Memoir - Paperback

by Joan Didion
$19.00
$19.00

Book Overview

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Notes to John: In this "arresting amalgam of memoir and historical timeline" (The Baltimore Sun), Didion--a native Californian--reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history, and ours.

Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to California's ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic's often tenuous relationship to reality. Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California's romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons.

Whether she is writing about her pioneer ancestors or privileged sexual predators, robber barons or writers (not excluding herself), Didion is an unparalleled observer, and this book is at once intellectually provocative and deeply personal.

Front Jacket

In her moving and insightful new book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history and ours. A native Californian, Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to the state's ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic's often tenuous relationship to reality.
Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From" explores California's romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons. Whether she is writing about her pioneer ancestors or privileged sexual predators, robber barons or writers (not excluding herself), Didion is an unparalleled observer, and her book is at once intellectually provocative and deeply personal.
ISBN9780679752868
Author Joan Didion
PublisherVintage
GenreBiography and History
FormatPaperback
PublishedSeptember 2004
LanguageENG- English
Pages240
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography History Nonfiction

1% fer Each of the Seven Seas

Every purchase sends 7% of our profits to The Ocean Cleanup. No fine print, no opt-in — just how we sail.

Whoever Ye Be, Welcome Aboard

Queer lit, music, art, philosophy, fiction — stories for every kind of soul. Come as ye are, matey.

More by Joan Didion

Joan Didion: Memoirs & Later Writings (Loa #386): Political Fictions / Fixed Ideas / Where I Was from / The Year of Magical Thinking (Memoir & Play) /

Joan Didion: Memoirs & Later Writings (Loa #386): Political Fictions / Fixed Ideas / Where I Was from / The Year of Magical Thinking (Memoir & Play) / - Hardcover

Joan Didion: Memoirs & Later Writings (Loa #386): Political Fictions / Fixed Ideas / Where I Was from / The Year of Magical Thinking (Memoir & Play) / - Hardcover

By Joan Didion

About Joan Didion

Joan Didion (1934-2021) was the National Book Award-winning author of many works of fiction and nonfiction. After earning a Bachelor's degree in English at the University of California, Berkeley, she started her literary career writing articles and essays for Vogue, Mademoiselle, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and National Review, establishing herself as a prominent member of the New Journalism movement. Her books include The White Album, Play It As It Lays, and Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, Didion's revelatory memoir The Year of Magical Thinking was adapted as a one-woman stage show starring Vanessa Redgrave on Broadway. She also wrote several screenplays with her husband John Gregory Dunne, including Panic in Needle Park with Al Pacino, the second remake of A Star is Born with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and an adaptation of her own Play It As It Lays with Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins.

You may also like