As far as I'm concerned, any Joan Didion book is worth picking up. But as much as I admire Didion and have loved many of her books, I couldn't understand the motivation behind the release of the latest collection of her non-fiction essays, Let Me Tell You What I Mean,
Joan Didion's Let Me Tell You What I Mean is a republishing of the writer's exacting eye
In Let Me Tell You What I Mean, the writing is as tart and economical as you would expect from Didion but the stakes are low. She doesn't get into one top university but is accepted by another. She is disappointed that Ernest Hemingway's wife releases his last novel posthumously. She tries to write short stories but isn't great at it. People are self-destructive, they waste their time and hers. Life rolls on.
Joan Didion is 86, at this point she owes us nothing. But the release of a new book does raise expectations. How much more wonderful it would be to regard the Black Lives Matter and MeToo movements through her unflinching eyes. Or even Free Britney, for that matter. What does she make of pandemic isolation? Or Donald Trump and the rise of the furious right-winger?
Perhaps this book is meant to serve as a sort of amuse-bouche, and we are about to be treated to some fresh Didion material. Please let that be so, because if this were to be the last word from her, it would be a disappointing one.
Reviewed by Eleanor Black
Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion (4th Estate, $33)