Taki Taki

The joylessness of Joan Didion

Joan Didion, who gave the impression she carried the weight of the world on her tiny frame. Credit: © Netflix /Courtesy Everett Collection 
issue 05 February 2022

Gstaad

 

Joan Didion, who died last December, took herself extremely seriously. American writers tend to do that, especially those whose books are unreadable, the kind who win prizes and get reviewed by the Bagel Times. Pretension aside, however, Didion was a hell of a writer, a stylist who modelled her prose on Papa Hemingway’s.

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