Joan Didion
If you're like me and haven't read enough of Joan Didion's work, the documentary about her life and writing will make you want to read more. At 75 pounds and 82 years old, she looks like she may not be around much longer. But one beauty of writing is that it survives the writer. It's not too late to read the words of one of the strongest writers of her generation--as Obama said when he recognized her achievement in a ceremony to honor her.
Joan Didion wrote essays about the times we all remember--when Haight-Ashbury and Hippiedom were the focus of the world, when drugs, suicides and murders became front page news, when families and dreams were crumbling all around us. She interviewed one of the Manson women, she knew Janis Joplin, she saw a 5-year-old child on acid.
She wrote about Cheney and baseball, politics and loss. She hosted huge parties and knew many luminaries in the world of art and music and theater.
She wrote two compelling books and a play about grief after her husband and daughter died within two years of each other. One is called Blue Nights, the other The Year of Magical Thinking.
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