Frank Donnelly: Personally I love Joan Didion. I think this affects my enjoyment and even fascination with all of her work, including “The White Album”. Again, personally this was a five star reading experience for me. However I feel quite positive that this work will not appeal to every reader. It very much depends on what one is looking for…
Joan Didion writes both fiction and non fiction. She wrote very interesting and introspective essays about the sixties and seventies. This work is a series of non fiction essays, largely about California during that timeframe. Of all of the works of Joan Didion that I have thus far read, this work reminds me most of “Sloughing Towards Bethlehem”, which remains my favorite non fiction work of Joan Didion.
I always read Joan Didion when I have a chance to sit quietly in solitude with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. I clear my head of all distractions. I then sort of lose myself in her thoughts and words. If my mind begins to drift I take a break. If I need to look up references and persons I do so. If it takes me a month to read a work such as this, and it did, so be it…
Joan Didion has always been something of an enigma...
United States on Oct 14, 2023
T satyanarayana: I expected something more When I came to know this book was the New York time best seller but a bit disappointed.Some of the essays are most gripping but not all.
India on Sep 03, 2023
Amazon Customer: Beautifully written. Gave a wonderful and complete view of the period.
United States on Jun 13, 2023
L. V. Sage, Author: Reading this book of essays on mostly American life, I couldn’t help but keep thinking about how this or that subject was still going on in the country today. Most would do well to read Didion’s work and keep in mind the very real fact that history does, in fact, repeat itself. Over and over and will likely continue to do so.
Being a California native, I also really enjoyed reading her essays on our complicated state, a state that I see falling apart yet again, a state that is in my blood, heart and soul so deeply that when I briefly left it for another I became clinically depressed and we had to return. A state that will endure and rise again someday.
If you are interested in history, in looking more deeply at ourselves as Americans you will be hard pressed to find a better voice that Joan Didion.
United States on Feb 09, 2021
archi reaper: Como siempre Joan Didion tiene la capacidad de mostrar la realidad de la costa oeste norteamericano y más, sin obviedad, una crítica sin enojo, sobre problemas tan actuales aunque los haya escrito antes y durante 1979. Ojalá la tomáramos en cuenta hoy con tanto feminismo “sobre evidente” y tanta mentira dada por verdad
Spain on Aug 24, 2019
Ebbie: One of the best books for young women. All women. All people. Joan Didion hits the mark on Feminism, Los Angeles, water, marriage, people...just a fabulous soul on paper. A breath of air in an entitled, silly world.
United Kingdom on Dec 15, 2017
Hohenbalken: People change. If I read this 25 years ago I would say it is brilliant and clever. It does have a distinctive style, but it seems formula based now. She has this I am a dumbbell approach to every situation, the readers knows the situation is inane, therefore the writer actually sees it in a reasonable manner, this assumes that Didion is brilliant rather than pedantic. The book made me tired. If only I were young again - then I would like it.
Canada on Sep 19, 2017
Gracie: A great read, Some of the articles and essays are more engaging than others, but it is never less than interesting.
United Kingdom on Sep 18, 2015
E. Kutinsky: The praise gets heaped on Slouching Towards Bethlehem (as well it should), but after finishing The White Album, there is no doubt in my mind they are equals in every way - an eloquent, painstaking, timeless collection of one unexpected, evocative observation after another. The appeal of Didion's writing is often to glimpse the author underneath her thick and specific veils of details, to marvel at the way her specifics are often more telling about her than about what she's writing - her own sense of dislocation amidst the silly late-60's music industry, her heartbreak within a charred orchid greenhouse, her rather endless defensiveness of California in Hollywood board rooms and Beverly Hills restaurants. In that, my favorite piece in this flawless collection is the 3-page description of Georgia O'Keefe: "'The men' believed it impossible to paint New York, so Georgia O'Keefe painted New York. 'The men' didn't think much of her bright color, so she made it brighter. The men yearned toward Europe so she went to Texas." It's a proud and bold description of a proud and bold woman, but what it really is is a treatise on what it means to be inspired and emboldened by the work and life of...
United States on Jul 09, 2006
Joan Didion's White Album: FSG Classics Edition | Dr. Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Fight for Global Democracy | Cant Hurt Me: Conquer Your Fears and Achieve Unparalleled Success | |
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B2B Rating |
76
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98
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98
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Sale off | $4 OFF | $14 OFF | $5 OFF |
Total Reviews | 35 reviews | 3 reviews | 1 reviews |
ISBN-13 | 978-0374532079 | 978-1510766808 | 978-1544512280 |
Language | English | English | English |
Paperback | 224 pages | ||
Author Biographies | Author Biographies | ||
Publisher | FSG Adult; 59246th edition | Skyhorse Publishing; Standard Edition | Lioncrest Publishing |
Essays (Books) | Essays | ||
ISBN-10 | 0374532079 | 1510766804 | 1544512287 |
Customer Reviews | 4.5/5 stars of 2,952 ratings | 4.8/5 stars of 24,433 ratings | 4.8/5 stars of 91,143 ratings |
Dimensions | 5.5 x 0.55 x 8.15 inches | 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches | |
Item Weight | 7 ounces | 1.75 pounds | 1.34 pounds |
Best Sellers Rank | #21 in Author Biographies#23 in Essays | #1 in Immunology #1 in Vaccinations#1 in Virology | #142 in Health, Fitness & Dieting |
Amazon Customer: So you want to know what real writing is like! Read and learn.
United States on Dec 03, 2023