Claire Dederer at The Guardian:
I know too much about Joan Didion. I’ve seen her image on tote bags and Celine ads; I’ve scrolled past her beautiful sulking face on countless Instagram feeds; I’ve streamed multiple documentaries about her. You’ll notice that I’m not describing her work; I’m describing her fame: the Didion spectacle. I’m impatient with this fame of hers. I believe she is famous for the wrong reasons; in other words, that she is loved wrongly and maybe too widely. I want her to be loved only the way I love her: as the author of a few specific pieces of writing.
I’m not alone in this feeling. My kid texted me the day Didion died: “I loved her but Twitter today is going to be unbearable.” So I came with some trepidation to The Uptown Local. Some reviewers have complained that the book – an account of Cory Leadbeater’s time working as Didion’s assistant – is a little too light on the Didion and a little too heavy on Leadbeater’s own experiences of joy and death.
more here.
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