Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays (Paperback)

by Joan Didion (Author) "THIS IS A STORY about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Lucille Miller, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"In her portraits of people, Didion is not out to expose but to understand, and she shows us actors and millionaires, doomed brides and naive acid-trippers, left wing ideologues and snobs of the Hawaiian aristocracy in a way that makes them neither villainous nor glamorous, but alive and botched and often mournfully beautiful . . . A rich display of some of the best prose written today in this country."--Dan Wakefield, The New York Times Book Review
-- Review

Review

"In her portraits of people, Didion is not out to expose but to understand, and she shows us actors and millionaires, doomed brides and naive acid-trippers, left wing ideologues and snobs of the Hawaiian aristocracy in a way that makes them neither villainous nor glamorous, but alive and botched and often mournfully beautiful . . . A rich display of some of the best prose written today in this country."--Dan Wakefield, The New York Times Book Review

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Product Details Paperback: 238 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 1, 1990) Language: English ISBN-10: 0374521727 ISBN-13: 978-0374521721 Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,618 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in this category: (What's this?) #8 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Didion, Joan

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First Sentence:
THIS IS A STORY about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Lucille Miller, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miss Baez, John Wayne, Ira Sandperl, Las Vegas, San Bernardino, Santa Ana, Howard Hughes, Joan Baez, Arthwell Hayton, Sandy Slagle, Banyan Street, Michael Laski, Chester Anderson, Sue Ann, Officer Gerrans, Peter Berg, Arthur Lisch, Cork Miller, Pearl Harbor, United States, World War

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 25 books:

• San Bernardino County by Automobile Club of Southern California on page 7, and page 8
• Play It As It Lays: A Novel by Joan Didion in Front Matter
• Run River by Joan Didion in Front Matter
• A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion in Front Matter
• Ends and Means by Aldous Huxley on page 48

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100 books cite this book:

• Marriage, Violence and the Nation in the American Literary West (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) by William R. Handley on 6 pages
• Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Modern Library) by Joan Didion on 5 pages
• Writing Creative Nonfiction: Fiction Techniques for Crafting Great Nonfiction by Theodore A. Rees Cheney on page 27, page 178, and Back Matter
• Unfolding Beauty: Celebrating California's Landscapes (California Legacy Book) by Terry Beers on page 267, page 342, and Back Matter
• Landscapes of the New West: Gender and Geography in Contemporary Women's Writing (Cultural Studies of the United States) by Krista Comer on page 52, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

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Customer Reviews

33 Reviews 5 star:  (24) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (4) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.5 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 35 of 38 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars American Anomie, October 31, 2001 By  "bibliomane01" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews This classic 1968 work is justly renowned as Joan Didion's finest collection of essays. Its central theme - and the theme behind much of what Didion writes - is the atomisation of American culture, the way in which things have fallen apart and left millions adrift from the cultural and ethical moorings that their ancestors took for granted. 33 years later, it is ironic to look back on the period that the writer depicts with such grim pathos when it is celebrated as a time of idealism and freedom by the survivors of the sixties. Many pieces in the first and third sections of the book ("Lifestyles in the Golden Land" and "Seven Places of the Mind") seem rather dated; the piece which made the most impression on this reviewer was the least ambitious of the group; to me, the portrait of Comrade Laski of the CPUSA-ML is a tiny masterpiece of irony. The pieces from the second section ("Personals")were much more enjoyable, especially "On Keeping a Notebook" and "On Self-Respect." Overall, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" is more memorable for the author's endearing prose style than for the individual essays. 17 of 17 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A period piece, but some of it is classic, January 15, 2001 By  R. Walker - See all my reviews This review is from: Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Modern Library) (Hardcover) Decades after the fact, this collection of essays is a bit of a period piece, but some of it holds up quite well. The subject of the famous title story -- which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1967 -- is about the Haight Street scene and, more to the point, the breakdown of human connection that Didion believed that scene represented. She is similarly gloomy about New York in "Goodbye to All That," and about California in "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream." Though she was in her late 20s and early 30s when she wrote this material, she clearly saw much of what was going on in the 1960s as the activities of a different generation from her own. In any case it's these pieces, along with one about John Wayne, that stand out here, and remain, after all these years, pretty close to extraordinary. Some of the other material (a piece about Joan Baez, etc.) is less memorable. I bought this in the hardback Modern Library edition with a useless introductory essay by Elizabeth Hardwick (but a great photo of Didion on the front cover). Should've gone with paper. 23 of 25 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars excellent example of the essay form, September 2, 2005 By  J. Jacobs - See all my reviews    Didion's collection of essays was recommended to me by writing instructors as an example of excellent essay writing. I found it to be just that. In the first third, she writes a series of remarkable essays about California in the late 1960s. The middle third contains personal essays. And the book finishes with a collection of essays about different places she's been - New York, Hartford, Hawaii, Sacramento. What makes her writing most impressive is her masterful presentation of portraits, inserting herself just occasionally to remind the reader of who the photographer was, to inject humanity. She does an excellent job combining place and character and shows that long sentences can work. This book is useful both an as example to those who aspire to writing better essays and as a memorable voice from the 1960s.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT COLLECTION FOR ANYONE -- RECOMMENDED BY COLLEGE PROFESSOR (FOR HERSELF AND HER STUDENTS) I am reminded how important it is -- necessary, curative -- to have my own beliefs and opinions disrupted by this book. Read more Published 2 months ago by Leighton Moore 5.0 out of 5 stars Classic and Wonderful You enter a different world when you read this book (also Didion's White Album). It's not the California you see on television or People magazine; it's the gritty day to day... Read more Published 7 months ago by A. Altman 5.0 out of 5 stars Didion is a writer's writer All these years later, this book still sells because the writing is just superb. If you're in an MFA or other program, honing your skill as an essayist, this book is a must for... Read more Published 7 months ago by S. Kay Murphy 5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic classic by Joan Didion I study English in Denmark and we were told to read Play It As It Lays and that just made me hungry for more books from Didion and I was not disapointed. Read more Published 13 months ago by M. Kristensen 3.0 out of 5 stars Essays of what? I originally chose to read this book because it was written by Joan Didion. I found it was a mistake quite soon. At least for me. Read more Published 15 months ago by Sarah F. Erickson 5.0 out of 5 stars Yeats, The Grateful Dead, and All That This book starts out citing W.B. Yeats and Peggy Lee, co-equals in esteem and regard. Yeats and his slouching towards Bethlehem, "Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The... Read more Published on May 17, 2007 by M. Swinney 5.0 out of 5 stars Joan Didion A Voice for the Sixties I had read Joan Didion's essays written in the sixties and covering a variety of topics when they were first published. Read more Published on March 29, 2007 by Mary K. Hunt 5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection This is a great group of essays by one of the century's premier American essayists. I suppose reading her latest book, The Year of Magical Thinking, before reading her older... Read more Published on January 11, 2007 by Eric Chamberlain 5.0 out of 5 stars Didion doesn't slouch I am relieved to have finally read Didion's much acclaimed book of essays, which was published in 1968--and so it's old. So what? Read more Published on April 26, 2006 by B. L. Williams 3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting if not dated well written essays about CA and counterculture. Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of essays that generally revolve around California and how counterculture is a reflection of society falling apart. Read more Published on April 24, 2006 by Surface to Air Missle Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374521727
• ISBN-13: 978-0374521721
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,618 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #8 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Didion, Joan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars American Anomie, October 31, 2001

By	"bibliomane01" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This classic 1968 work is justly renowned as Joan Didion's finest collection of essays. Its central theme - and the theme behind much of what Didion writes - is the atomisation of American culture, the way in which things have fallen apart and left millions adrift from the cultural and ethical moorings that their ancestors took for granted. 33 years later, it is ironic to look back on the period that the writer depicts with such grim pathos when it is celebrated as a time of idealism and freedom by the survivors of the sixties. Many pieces in the first and third sections of the book ("Lifestyles in the Golden Land" and "Seven Places of the Mind") seem rather dated; the piece which made the most impression on this reviewer was the least ambitious of the group; to me, the portrait of Comrade Laski of the CPUSA-ML is a tiny masterpiece of irony. The pieces from the second section ("Personals")were much more enjoyable, especially "On Keeping a Notebook" and "On Self-Respect." Overall, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" is more memorable for the author's endearing prose style than for the individual essays.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A period piece, but some of it is classic, January 15, 2001

By	R. Walker - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

Decades after the fact, this collection of essays is a bit of a period piece, but some of it holds up quite well. The subject of the famous title story -- which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1967 -- is about the Haight Street scene and, more to the point, the breakdown of human connection that Didion believed that scene represented. She is similarly gloomy about New York in "Goodbye to All That," and about California in "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream." Though she was in her late 20s and early 30s when she wrote this material, she clearly saw much of what was going on in the 1960s as the activities of a different generation from her own. In any case it's these pieces, along with one about John Wayne, that stand out here, and remain, after all these years, pretty close to extraordinary. Some of the other material (a piece about Joan Baez, etc.) is less memorable. I bought this in the hardback Modern Library edition with a useless introductory essay by Elizabeth Hardwick (but a great photo of Didion on the front cover). Should've gone with paper.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent example of the essay form, September 2, 2005

By	J. Jacobs - See all my reviews

Didion's collection of essays was recommended to me by writing instructors as an example of excellent essay writing. I found it to be just that. In the first third, she writes a series of remarkable essays about California in the late 1960s. The middle third contains personal essays. And the book finishes with a collection of essays about different places she's been - New York, Hartford, Hawaii, Sacramento.

What makes her writing most impressive is her masterful presentation of portraits, inserting herself just occasionally to remind the reader of who the photographer was, to inject humanity. She does an excellent job combining place and character and shows that long sentences can work. This book is useful both an as example to those who aspire to writing better essays and as a memorable voice from the 1960s.