Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light

It’s interesting to read a book of essays about an author’s work you have never read. I enjoy doing this because it allows me to sample the work without a long-term commitment. I also get an idea of which specific pieces I might like best to read.

Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light, did not disappoint. Although I have read little of Didion’s work, I feel I have absorbed a lot of it by cultural osmosis. It was impressive to see the length and the variety of her career, from Slouching Towards Bethlehem in the late 1960’s to South and West: From a Notebook in 2017. All of the essayists live in and love Los Angeles, which is a focal point of much of Didion’s writing. The collection is as much as love letter to the City of Angels as it is to Didion. I haven’t been to Los Angeles, but the essays transported me to a place that is both luxurious and gritty, wide-open and hemmed in, welcoming and exclusive. The city seems to be full of contradictions as Didion is herself. I found all of the writing interesting in terms of style and how each of them viewed Didion and Los Angeles. I would highly recommend this book.