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South and West : from a notebook  Cover Image E-audiobook E-audiobook

South and West : from a notebook

Didion, Joan (author.). Farr, Kimberly, (Narrator.). Rich, Nathaniel, 1980- (Writer of foreword,, Narrator.).

Summary: From the best-selling author of the National Book Award-winning The Year of Magical Thinking: two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks--writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles--and here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through. And from a different notebook: the "California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage, all of which would appear later in her acclaimed 2003 book, Where I Was From.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780525494195
  • ISBN: 0525494197
  • Physical Description: remote
    1 online resource (1 sound file (02 hr., 52 min., 17 sec.)) : digital
  • Edition: Unabridged.
  • Publisher: [New York] : Random House Audio, 2017.

Content descriptions

Participant or Performer Note: Read by Kimberly Farr and Nathaniel Rich.
Source of Description Note:
Online resource; title from title details screen (OverDrive, viewed March 13, 2017).
Subject: Didion, Joan
United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
Southern States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
California -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
Biography as a literary form
Genre: Audiobooks.
Downloadable audio books.

Electronic resources


Summary: From the best-selling author of the National Book Award-winning The Year of Magical Thinking: two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks--writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles--and here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through. And from a different notebook: the "California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage, all of which would appear later in her acclaimed 2003 book, Where I Was From.
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Showing Item 10 of 11

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