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Today, "To tell you everything" by Joan Didion, published on January 19, 2022 by Éditions Grasset.
Alain Raimbault, writer, blogger and contributor to the 20 Minutes
Books reading group
, recommends
Pour tout vous dire
by Joan Didion, published on January 19, 2022 by Éditions Grasset.
His favorite quote:
“All I knew at the time was what I couldn't do. All I knew back then was what I wasn't, and it took me a few years to figure out who I was. That is, a writer. I mean not a "good" or a "bad" writer, but simply a writer, a person who spends his most intense hours of passion and concentration arranging words on scraps of paper. »
Why this book?
Because the reader crosses America from 1968 to 2000
under the piercing gaze of a resolutely Californian and luminous author.
This series of articles published in various journals covers topics such as: the underground press;
a meeting of Players Anonymous in Gardena;
a visit to Xanadu Castle;
his letter of refusal to enter the university;
a visit to the pretty Nancy Reagan;
a reunion of veterans;
the success of Martha Stewart… A thousand stories in a direct, true, hard-hitting, unstoppable style.
Because Joan Didion evokes writers with deep empathy.
His reading, his questioning of the style of the master Ernest Hemingway leads to an understanding of the act of writing, of choosing his words, and of seeing them published in the end.
She reveals to us what represents a text published with the agreement of the writer, and in opposition she wonders about the value of a sketch, of a private correspondence, of a draft.
Is it also literature?
Can we, do we have the right to publish without the author's agreement?
Because the author explains to us why she writes
, why she considers herself more of a writer than a theoretician.
She talks about her beginnings as a writer, her creative process, her difficulty writing short stories, and above all her doubts about the possibility of writing a first, then a new novel.
“I only write to find out what I think, what I watch, what I see and what it means.
“Clear, honest, direct, precise, and ultimately very beautiful.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot.
Series of articles that address daily life in the United States, written in a style that speaks directly to the reader, without any distance.
Characters.
Writers, directors, political figures, veterans, addicted gamers, the author herself...
Places.
Mainly California
The time.
From 1968 to 2000. The 1950s are also mentioned.
The author.
Joan Didion was born in 1934 in California, and she died recently, on December 23, 2021. Novelist, essayist, journalist and screenwriter, she was a major figure in American literature.
This book was read with
the surprise of having learned of the death of Joan Didion last December and of discovering it in this way through these luminous articles.
I found that very moving.
This book is moving.
There are no other words.
Buy this book on Amazon
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California
United States
Book sheet 20 Minutes
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