Synopses & Reviews
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live" was the opening line of Joan Didion's celebrated The White Album. In After Henry, her new collection of pieces, most of them reported and written for The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker, she examines, precisely and suggestively, the stories people tell themselves about murders and earthquakes and wildfires, about presidential politics and Patricia Hearst and Central Park "wilding," about boom years passing and hard times coming down in Washington and in California and in New York. Joan Didion's two previous collections, Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, are now established as classics. Salvador and Miami stand as hallmarks of political reporting. After Henry is a major literary event.
Review
"[Didion is] truly one of the premier essayists of our time....[H]er prose, in its very complexity, beautifully plays against her subjects....A collection to savor by a stylist in top form." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Didion's journalistic essays are often considered her best writing, and this representative sample will be appreciated by readers who like newsworthy reading." Library Journal
Synopsis
In her latest forays into the American scene, the author of Miami, Democracy, and Salvador covers ground from Washington to Los Angeles and from a TV producer's mansion to the racial battlefields of New York's criminal courts. And along the way, she reveals the mythic narratives that other commentators miss.
Synopsis
National Bestseller
Didion's reportorial pieces afford the pleasures of literature. . . . She is an expert geographer of the landscape of American public culture (The New York Times Book Review).
Here, Didion covers ground from Washington to Los Angeles, from a TV producer's gargantuan manor to the racial battlefields of New York's criminal courts.
At each stop she uncovers the mythic narratives that elude other observers: Didion tells us about the fantasies the media construct around crime victims and presidential candidates; she gives us new interpretations of the stories of Nancy Reagan and Patty Hearst; she charts America's rollercoaster ride through evanescent booms and hard times that won't go away.
A bracing amalgam of skepticism and sympathy, After Henry is further proof of Joan Didion's infallible radar for the true spirit of our age.
Synopsis
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Didion's reportorial pieces afford the pleasures of literature.... She is an expert geographer of the landscape of American public culture (The New York Times Book Review).
Here, the National Book Award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking covers ground from Washington to Los Angeles, from a TV producer's gargantuan manor to the racial battlefields of New York's criminal courts.
At each stop she uncovers the mythic narratives that elude other observers: Didion tells us about the fantasies the media construct around crime victims and presidential candidates; she gives us new interpretations of the stories of Nancy Reagan and Patty Hearst; she charts America's rollercoaster ride through evanescent booms and hard times that won't go away.
A bracing amalgam of skepticism and sympathy, After Henry is further proof of Joan Didion's infallible radar for the true spirit of our age.
Synopsis
In her latest forays into the American scene, Joan Didion covers ground from Washington to Los Angeles, from a TV producer's gargantuan "manor" to the racial battlefields of New York's criminal courts. At each stop she uncovers the mythic narratives that elude other observers: Didion tells us about the fantasies the media construct around crime victims and presidential candidates; she gives us new interpretations of the stories of Nancy Reagan and Patty Hearst; she charts America's rollercoaster ride through evanescent booms and hard times that won't go away. A bracing amalgam of skepticism and sympathy, After Henry is further proof of Joan Didion's infallible radar for the true spirit of our age.
About the Author
Joan Didion was born in California and lives in New York. She is the author of five novels and six previous books of nonfiction: Political Fictions, After Henry, Miami, Salvador, The White Album, and Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Table of Contents
After Henry 13
Washington 23
In the Realm of the Fisher King 25
Insider Baseball 47
Shooters Inc. 87
California 93
Girl of the Golden West 95
Pacific Distances 110
Los Angeles Days 145
Down at City Hall 174
L.A. Noir 198
Fire Season 210
Times Mirror Square 220
New York 251
Sentimental Journeys 253