Slouching Towards Bethlehem
by Joan Didion(1968)
Novelc. 230 pages
“The center was not holding.”
One great work, every day
by Joan Didion(1968)
“The center was not holding.”
Joan Didion(1968)
Joan Didion's first essay collection, published in 1968, includes the title piece on the Haight-Ashbury scene, but also pieces on self-respect, on keeping a notebook, on John Wayne. The prose style is unmistakable: short sentences, precise details, the uneasy sense that something is wrong that cannot be named. She diagnosed the American breakdown before most people knew it was happening. The essays remain vital because the breakdown she identified has not ended.