| Where I Was from: A Memoir Contributor(s): Didion, Joan (Author) |
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ISBN: 0679752862 ISBN-13: 9780679752868 Publisher: Vintage OUR PRICE: $15.30 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: September 2004 Annotation: 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. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - State & Local - West (ak, Ca, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, Wy) - History | United States - 20th Century - Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures |
| Dewey: 979.4 |
| Series: Vintage International |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.1" W x 7.9" (0.50 lbs) 240 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - West Coast - Geographic Orientation - California |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this moving and insightful book, 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 this book is at once intellectually provocative and deeply personal. |