A gift for Didion’s many fans.
Candid interviews with a literary icon.
In nine interviews that span nearly 50 years, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and memoirist Didion (1934-2021) responded to questions with thoughtful openness. Although Didion was not, as one interviewer noted, “what one would call a virtuoso conversationalist,” several interviews read like comfortable exchanges, notably with New Yorker theater critic Hilton Als and “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross. Talking with Als in 2006, Didion reflected on the trajectory of her career; her early aspirations; her self-doubts as a writer; the influences of Hemingway, Conrad (she reread Victory every time she began a new novel, she said), and the plays of Eugene O’Neill; and the challenges of fiction and nonfiction. “Writing fiction is for me a fraught business,” she told Als, “an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel, and sometimes all the way through.” Nonfiction, though, felt less threatening, “more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing.” Talking about Didion’s memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, Gross gently led the author into a conversation about grief after the deaths of her husband and daughter. Several interviews focus on Didion’s political stance, revealed in essays and novels such as Salvador and Miami. Describing herself once as libertarian, Didion explained that she was raised in “a western frontier ethic. That means being left alone and leaving others alone.” The politics she wanted, she told novelist Sara Davidson, “are anarchic. Throw out the laws. Tear it down. Start all over. That is very romantic because it presumes that left to their own devices, people would do good things for one another. I doubt,” she added ruefully, “that that’s true.” Although her last interview, conducted shortly before her death, was terse, the collection portrays a woman acutely sensitive “to the anguish of being a human being.” Other interviewers include Hari Kunzru, Dave Eggers, and Sheila Heti.
A gift for Didion’s many fans.Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68589-011-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Melville House
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.
The veteran newscaster reflects on her triumphs and hardships, both professional and private.
In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Couric (b. 1957) transforms the events of her long, illustrious career into an immensely readable story—a legacy-preserving exercise, for sure, yet judiciously polished and insightful, several notches above the fray of typical celebrity memoirs. The narrative unfolds through a series of lean chapters as she recounts the many career ascendency steps that led to her massively successful run on the Today Show and comparably disappointing stints as CBS Evening News anchor, talk show host, and Yahoo’s Global News Anchor. On the personal front, the author is candid in her recollections about her midlife adventures in the dating scene and deeply sorrowful and affecting regarding the experience of losing her husband to colon cancer as well as the deaths of other beloved family members, including her sister and parents. Throughout, Couric maintains a sharp yet cool-headed perspective on the broadcast news industry and its many outsized personalities and even how her celebrated role has diminished in recent years. “It’s AN ADJUSTMENT when the white-hot spotlight moves on,” she writes. “The ego gratification of being the It girl is intoxicating (toxic being the root of the word). When that starts to fade, it takes some getting used to—at least it did for me.” Readers who can recall when network news coverage and morning shows were not only relevant, but powerfully influential forces will be particularly drawn to Couric’s insights as she tracks how the media has evolved over recent decades and reflects on the negative effects of the increasing shift away from reliable sources of informed news coverage. The author also discusses recent important cultural and social revolutions, casting light on issues of race and sexual orientation, sexism, and the predatory behavior that led to the #MeToo movement. In that vein, she expresses her disillusionment with former co-host and friend Matt Lauer.
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-53586-1
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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