“After I married and had a child, I learned to find meaning in the repeated rituals of domestic life. Setting the table. Lighting the candles. Building the fire. Cooking…These fragments I have shored against my ruins, were the words that came to mind then. These fragments mattered to me. I believed in them. I could find meaning in the intensely personal nature of my life as a wife and mother”
Book Jacket Summary: From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage—and a life, in good times and bad—that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.
Highlights:
--plain, yet eloquent prose: each sentence is a joy to read, not only for its content, but also for its style
--tribute to an extraordinary marriage: although ostensibly about her husband’s death, this book is really more about his life and her life and their life together
--this autobiography/memoir provides fascinating context for Didion’s novels
Similar to: Virginia Woolf, Bret Easton Ellis’ “The Informers”
Here is an interesting article i read yesterday about contemporary feminist writing, of which i was reminded by your description of this book. I don't like the authors tone, it sounds to me like the author implies that true liberated women have to live the 60s lifestyle, but it is interesting to say the least.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/opinion/sunday/10sex.html?_r=4&ref=opinion