Joan Didion Livres

Je vous ai prevenus, je suis la pour vous dire ce que vous devez savoir. Vous me voyez sur cette scene, on se croise dans un avion, a un diner, et vous savez ce qui m'est arrive. Vous ne voulez pas croire que ca pourrait vous arriver a vous. C'est pour ca que je suis la. Personne n'a oublie L'Annee de la pensee magique , le recit bouleversant dans lequel Joan Didion racontait son deuil.Voici aujourd'hui ce texte magique transforme par l'auteur elle-meme en un monologue, incarne sur les scenes new-yorkaise et londonienne par Vanessa Redgrave. Et c'est, en France, la voix et la presence de Fanny Ardant, lors de sa creation au theatre de l'Atelier en novembre 2011, qui donnent une nouvelle vie a ce recit puissant, incandescent.

Une soirée ordinaire, fin décembre à New York. Joan Didion s'apprête à dîner avec son mari, l'écrivain John Gregory Dunne - quand ce dernier s'écroule sur la table de la salle à manger, victime d'une crise cardiaque foudroyante. Pendant une année entière, elle essaiera de se résoudre à la mort du compagnon de toute sa vie et de s'occuper de leur fille, plongée dans le coma à la suite d'une grave pneumonie. La souffrance, l'incompréhension, l'incrédulité, la méditation obsessionnelle autour de cet événement si commun et pourtant inconcevable : dans un récit impressionnant de sobriété et d'implacable honnêteté, Didion raconte la folie du deuil et dissèque, entre sécheresse clinique et monologue intérieur, la plus indicible expérience - et sa rédemption par la littérature. L'année de la pensée magique a été consacré " livre de l'année 2006 " aux Etats-Unis. Best-seller encensé par la critique, déjà considéré comme un classique de la littérature sur le deuil, ce témoignage bouleversant a été couronné par le National Book Award et vient d'être adapté pour la scène à Broadway, par l'auteur elle-même, dans une mise en scène de David Hare, avec Vanessa Redgrave.

Joan Didion’s incomparable and distinctive essays and journalism are admired for their acute, incisive observations and their spare, elegant style. Now the seven books of nonfiction that appeared between 1968 and 2003 have been brought together into one thrilling collection.Slouching Towards Bethlehem captures the counterculture of the sixties, its mood and lifestyle, as symbolized by California, Joan Baez, Haight-Ashbury. The White Album covers the revolutionary politics and the “contemporary wasteland” of the late sixties and early seventies, in pieces on the Manson family, the Black Panthers, and Hollywood. Salvador is a riveting look at the social and political landscape of civil war. Miami exposes the secret role this largely Latin city played in the Cold War, from the Bay of Pigs through Watergate. In After Henry Didion reports on the Reagans, Patty Hearst, and the Central Park jogger case. The eight essays in Political Fictions–on censorship in the media, Gingrich, Clinton, Starr, and “compassionate conservatism,” among others–show us how we got to the political scene of today. And in Where I Was From Didion shows that California was never the land of the golden dream.

Exploring Joan Didion's life and work, Hilton Als presents a chronological mosaic that captures the complexities of her identity as a writer influenced by both coasts of America. The narrative reflects Didion's critical yet affectionate view of her native California and her insightful observations on the political landscape from New York. The book features contributions from 50 artists across various mediums, alongside three previously uncollected texts by Didion, enriching the understanding of her impact on literature and culture.

The collection features Joan Didion's final four nonfiction works, showcasing her poignant reflections on grief, identity, and the American experience. "The Year of Magical Thinking" delves into her personal journey through loss, while "Blue Nights" explores themes of aging and memory. "South and West" offers observations from a road trip, and "Let Me Tell You What I Mean" presents a series of essays that highlight Didion's keen insights and distinctive voice, making this omnibus a significant addition to her literary legacy.

The collection features the powerful and haunting works from the later phase of a renowned writer's career. This definitive three-volume edition by the Library of America includes the final seven books, showcasing her unique voice and profound insights. Readers can expect a deep exploration of themes such as memory, loss, and the complexities of modern life, reflecting the author's unmatched literary talent and emotional depth.

This comprehensive edition brings together for the first time three seminal collections by legendary essayist and journalist Joan Didion: Slouching toward Bethlehem, White Album and Sentimental Journeys. Prefaced with a new introduction by Joan Didion.

From one of America's greatest and most iconic writers: an honest and courageous portrait of age and motherhood and a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter.

Classic literary journalism which defined, for many, the state of America during the upheaval of the Sixties Revolution "It was not a country in open revolution. It was not a country under enemy siege. It was the United States of America in the cold late spring of 1967, and the market was steady and the GNP high and a great many articulate people seemed to have a sense of high social purpose and it might have been a spring of brave hopes and national promise, but it was not..." "So physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate" that people tended to forget that her presence ran counter to their best interests, Joan Didion slipped herself into the heart of the Sixties Revolution, only to slip out again with this savage masterpiece, which, since first publication in 1968, has been acknowledged as an unparalleled report on the state of America during those curious days. Now that some of the posturing and pronouncements of those times are being recycled, Didion's sobering reflections are timely once again: 'the future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past."

"Some writers define a generation. Some a genre. Joan Didion did both, and much more. Didion rose to prominence with her nonfiction collection, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and she quickly became the writer who captured the zeitgeist of the washed-out, acid hangover of the 60s. But as a bicoastal writer of fiction and nonfiction whose writing ranged from personal essays and raw, intimate memoirs to reportage on international affairs and social justice, Didion is much harder to pin down than her reputation might suggest. This collection encompasses it all, in conversations that delve into her underappreciated mid-career works, her influences, the loss of her husband and daughter, and her most infamous essays. Far from the evasive, terse minimalist that has come to dominate the image of Joan Didion, what this collection reveals is a warm, thoughtful woman whose well earned legacy promises to live on for readers and writers for many generations to come."-- Provided by publisher