Most of these pieces don’t have a narrative arc. Didion’s distance reads as if she’s put court transcripts and video clips in order to make a narrative. The first piece, one I found interesting, was about a death that didn’t add up, one that had to be murder, and why police thought so. Oftentimes, her presence is so absent that I assumed several pieces were written based on research from other sources, though she explains that she visited these places herself. My biggest issue was the distance between Didion, who is acting as an investigative journalist, and her subject matter. To be forthcoming, I did not finish this collection of essays, stopping on page 141 out of 238 pages. Joan Didion’s collection of essays contained in Slouching Towards Bethlehem was all “written for magazines during 1965, 1966, and 1967” and most were “ idea.” She notes, “thirteen of the twenty pieces were published in The Saturday Evening Post.” Didion writes about Joan Baez’s school, John Wayne, people getting married in Vegas, the lifestyle around Haight Street, etc.
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