from the guardian…
To make sense of Joan Didion, and the unique place she occupies as a chronicler of American mores, I think you have to read, above all else, the two books in which she tries to make sense of her home state: The White Album and Where I Was From (2003), her first memoir. The latter is a kind of grown-up reflection on her life, family history and Californian identity. It is a book that only really comes alive when it adheres most closely to the form of the family memoir and gives you some insight into her social pedigree and the often steely gaze she trains on her subjects.
As a Californian now living in New York, I ask her where she feels she most belongs? ‘Oh, California. For sure. I’m not really attuned to here. At one level, I feel perfectly comfortable in New York, but I really believe that is because it is one of those cities where people feel comfortable wherever they are from. The only times I felt a deep attachment to the city was in my twenties, and again after 9/11. But I would say for sure that I have a Californian sensibility.’
And how would she define that sensibility? ‘Well. it’s an outsider’s sensibility. Definitely. On the edge of things. People don’t feel at home in Los Angeles if they come from somewhere else. It takes a long time to get it. And people who come from there tend to have an outside point of view. That’s certainly true in my case.’