We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction (Everyman's Library)

Ever since I read that Joan Didion more of less defined the 60s for America, I’ve wanted to read her nonfiction. And once I got started, I was pulled into this seven volume collection of her work.As an essayist who injects her personality into her prose without it turning it into egoism, Didion is beyond engaging. Her ability to turn a phrase, to follow a sentence with what you’d least expect, is almost unparalleled.Even though some of these writings now seem dated, for example her defense of Bill Clinton’s sexual escapades as non-issues between consenting adults rings hollow post “Me -Too”, a lot of what she says remains relevant some half century after she wrote it.Her descriptions of drug-addled hippies as lost sheep with no one to guide them, her reappraisal of California as relying less on its mythic rugged spirit and more on handouts from the federal government…even such asides as the people of 1980s San Salvador as smoking cigarettes because no one planned to live long enough for it to matter anyway—all of these etch into the reader even more than her inimitable style.If you do want to travel down the generations from 1960s to 1990s America, Joan Didion is arguably your best companion. You can even see her influence on such twenty-first century writers as David Foster Wallace. Her prose, like America itself, is thus a journey ongoing and if we had more prescient critics like Joan Didion still with us, we may not be on the rocky path we seem to be. Hardly needs a recommendation, but, for what it’s worth, I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to take part in the American public square—which, being a democracy, should probably include just about anyone.

This collection was something I didn’t know my mind and spirit needed until I was already gripped by Didion’s words. As a native Sacramentan, this is essential reading for anyone who has grown up in the valley, at the convergence of those two rivers, and the strange separation from the rest of world in that place.

A BEAUTIFUL book. A treasure in the hand and on the shelf. I have purchased most of Joan’s books but usually in paperback. Now I have one I can keep, hold, read, view, remember; a body of work that is the essence of an aging baby boomers world long past and likely to never come again.

Joan Didion is one of my all time favorites. So happy to have a nice, cheap used copy.

Happy I took a chance on this relatively new bookseller. The book was just as described, priced well, and delivered promptly.

I returned this item because I didn't like the way the paper feltIt's that simple I'm sure it's awesome because it's Joan Didion..I like her reads cuz this is as if she's speaking right to you it's not like you're reading a book you get captivated by the conversation for me anyhow

I'm a Joan Didion fan. I'm so glad that I finally bought this book for my library, ensuring that I will always have something wonderful to read. This is a thick book but in a compact size. The type is on the small side but still very readable.

I am a fan of Joan Didion, the late John Leonard, and Everyman's Library. Here you get all three. What's not to like?Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That" is a classic personal essay--one of my favorite pieces of writing of any kind. And here, you get that, and all the other essays from her seminal "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"--and every other collection of non-fiction up to the time this collection was released. Read together, you get a sense of America in the latter part of the 20th century, with particular emphasis on California as aspiration, dream, illusion, etc etc.The introduction by John Leonard is well-done and shows a real understanding of the whole body of Didion's work.And then Everyman does its usual fine job of packaging great writing in an attractive package at a reasonable price. Mind you, this is one heavy tome, with seven full books rolled into one (1100 pages). But you want them all. So here they are. Enjoy!

This is an excellent collection of the journalistic writing of Joan Didion. I use the book for reading, and to polish my own style.

Very happy, fast service. Book in excellent condition.

El contenido como todo lo que escribe esta autora es excelente. Lamentablemente, mi ejemplar llegó muy maltratado de la solapa.

Joan Didion não tem muita coisa em catálogo no Brasil. O que é uma pena. Mas, para quem arrisca ler em inglês, esse volume é uma excelente pedida, porque reúne os sete primeiros livros de não ficção que ela escreveu. Capa dura, papel bom e um preço bem mais em conta do que o de comprar os volumes separados. O material cobre os escritos de Didion dos anos 1960 até a década de 1980. Os temas são variados, desde um olhar pessoal sobre a cultura e a sociedade americana na intensa década de 1960 até suas obras políticas. Didion é conhecida por um texto preciso, por uma construção digna da melhor literatura. Seu fazer jornalístico se insere no que se convencionou chamar New Journalism (Novo Jornalismo).

Literarisch brillant und ein Stück Zeitgeschichte - dazu noch zügig geliefert...