The “dazzling” and essential portrayal of 1960s America from the author of South and West and The Year of Magical Thinking (The New York Times). Capturing the tumultuous landscape of the United States, and in particular California, during a pivotal era of social change, the first work of nonfiction from one of American literature’s most distinctive prose stylists is a modern classic. In twenty … stylists is a modern classic.
In twenty razor-sharp essays that redefined the art of journalism, National Book Award–winning author Joan Didion reports on a society gripped by a deep generational divide, from the “misplaced children” dropping acid in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district to Hollywood legend John Wayne filming his first picture after a bout with cancer. She paints indelible portraits of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes and folk singer Joan Baez, “a personality before she was entirely a person,” and takes readers on eye-opening journeys to Death Valley, Hawaii, and Las Vegas, “the most extreme and allegorical of American settlements.”
First published in 1968, Slouching Towards Bethlehem has been heralded by the New York Times Book Review as “a rare display of some of the best prose written today in this country” and named to Time magazine’s list of the one hundred best and most influential nonfiction books. It is the definitive account of a terrifying and transformative decade in American history whose discordant reverberations continue to sound a half-century later.
more
Reading this collection of essays written in the 1960’s was like traveling back in a time capsule covering everyone and everything from the period. Bob Dylan, John Wayne, Marty from Jefferson Airplane, Haight-Ashbury, LSD, Howard Hughes, Joan Baez, and the Viet Nam War—Just to name a few subjects. She possesses an uncanny ability to write documentary in gripping prose. I still cannot get the image of that five-year-old girl Susan, wearing white lipstick and licking her lips in concentration, while sitting on the living room floor tripping on “acid”
I was curious why Didion used the British spelling “Towards” when she is American and born in Sacramento. But a quick search explained the title as coming from the Irish poet W.B. Yeats poem The Second Coming. So, there you have it.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
I grew up during the 60’s, in a much quieter setting. This was a look at how others experienced that time.
Great read….
These essays have aged very well. Didion may be the best essayist of modern times.
This book by a well-known author was exactly as advertised — a look back at the mid1960s, particularly around the San Francisco area. Hippies, dope, free love and happiness. Interesting if you lived it (and probably don’t recall much of it) or if you’re studying it. Not so much for others. At least we know a bit more about through Didion’s clear eyes.
Some of the short chapters were good and sounded like the 60’s but generally did not hold my attention
A great dive into the world I grew up in, but with the precise explorations of a surgeon instead of the eyes of a young and confused country girl. A book that can be re-read forever, to appreciate the juxtapositions of parallel worlds and learn from one of the great writers.
Brilliant! I wish everyone could read her early essays. She is still my favorite writer. It’s ubelievable how she is able to capture the spirit of an era.
Great time capsule of the 1960’s. Love Joans style. Her portrait of Haight-Ashbury is chilling.
A report on the author’s world which the rest of us can only read about.
Joan Didion’s best book — which is really saying something — and one of the best books I have ever read, fiction or nonfiction. The absolute best window into the 1960s, bar none. Highly, highly recommended.
It was ok — she’s a great writer. This just, for some reason, didn’t hold my interest. Maybe it’s just me.
Ms. Didion is an American treasure! I lived in the S.F. Bay area during this period, and she “nailed it” when describing the scene. I have admired her work for most of my adult life.
I think Joan Didion is one of our national treasures. The Year of Magical Thinking is by far my favorite book. I read it the year after my husband died of ALS and I could relate tremendously.
This book of short stories is also a treasure in itself and a love story to California of the 1960’s.
I’m about half-way through the book and I must say its disappointing. I have read that this book established a new genre and was an example of great American literature and on and on. Sorry, I don’t get it. The author was pedestrian at best and seems to see the worst in the subjects of her writing.
Nobody writes like Didion-or has a better eye for detail and nuance.
Superb writing.
Didion is an excellent writer and I’ve enjoyed many of her books. In 2017 though, this one feels a bit dated. Still, there were some entertaining chapters.