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White Album (FSG Classics) Paperback – November 10, 2009

by Joan Didion (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,066 ratings
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First published in 1979, Joan Didion's The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s.

Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era―including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall―through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central text of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    FSG Adult
  4. Publication date
    November 10, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.55 x 8.15 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0374532079
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0374532079
  8. See all details
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  1. Water is important to people who do not have it, and the same is true of control.
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  2. I remember all of the day’s misinformation very clearly, and I also remember this, and wish I did not: I remember that no one was surprised.
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  3. By way of comment I offer only that an attack of vertigo and nausea does not now seem to me an inappropriate response to the summer of 1968.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Didion] can strike at the heart, or the absurdity, of a matter in our contemporary wasteland with quick, graceful strokes.” ―San Francisco Chronicle

“All of the essays--even the slightest--manifest not only [Didion's] intelligence, but an instinct for details that continue to emit pulsations in the reader's memory and a style that is spare, subtly musical in its phrasing and exact. Add to these her highly vulnerable sense of herself, and the result is a voice like no other in contemporary journalism.” ―Robert Towers, The New York Times Book Review

“Didion manages to make the sorry stuff of troubled times (bike movies, for instance, and Bishop James Pike) as interesting and suggestive as the monuments that win her dazzled admiration (Georgia O'Keeffe, the Hoover Dam, the mountains around Bogota). . . A timely and elegant collection.” ―The New Yorker

About the Author

Joan Didion was born in Sacramento in 1934 and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. After graduation, Didion moved to New York and began working for Vogue, which led to her career as a journalist and writer. Didion published her first novel, Run River, in 1963. Didion's other novels include A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996).
 
Didion's first volume of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, was published in 1968, and her second, The White Album, was published in 1979. Her nonfiction works include Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), After Henry (1992), Political Fictions (2001), Where I Was From (2003), We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live (2006), Blue Nights (2011), South and West (2017) and Let Me Tell You What I Mean (2021). Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2005.
 
In 2005, Didion was awarded the American Academy of Arts & Letters Gold Medal in Criticism and Belles Letters. In 2007, she was awarded the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. A portion of National Book Foundation citation read: "An incisive observer of American politics and culture for more than forty-five years, Didion's distinctive blend of spare, elegant prose and fierce intelligence has earned her books a place in the canon of American literature as well as the admiration of generations of writers and journalists." In 2013, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts and Humanities by President Barack Obama, and the PEN Center USA's Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
Didion said of her writing: "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means." She died in December 2021.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ FSG Adult; 59246th edition (November 10, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374532079
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374532079
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.55 x 8.15 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,066 ratings

About the author

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Joan Didion

Joan Didion

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Joan Didion was born in Sacramento in 1934 and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. After graduation, Didion moved to New York and began working for Vogue, which led to her career as a journalist and writer. Didion published her first novel, Run River, in 1963. Didion’s other novels include A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996).

Didion’s first volume of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, was published in 1968, and her second, The White Album, was published in 1979. Her nonfiction works include Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), After Henry (1992), Political Fictions (2001), Where I Was From (2003), We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live (2006), Blue Nights (2011), South and West (2017) and Let Me Tell You What I Mean (2021). Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2005.

In 2005, Didion was awarded the American Academy of Arts & Letters Gold Medal in Criticism and Belles Letters. In 2007, she was awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. A portion of National Book Foundation citation read: "An incisive observer of American politics and culture for more than forty-five years, Didion’s distinctive blend of spare, elegant prose and fierce intelligence has earned her books a place in the canon of American literature as well as the admiration of generations of writers and journalists.” In 2013, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts and Humanities by President Barack Obama, and the PEN Center USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Didion said of her writing: "I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.” She died in December 2021.

For more information, visit www.joandidion.org

Photo credit: Brigitte Lacombe

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
3,066 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

E. Kutinsky
5.0 out of 5 stars An astonishing collection
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2006
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The praise gets heaped on Slouching Towards Bethlehem (as well it should), but after finishing The White Album, there is no doubt in my mind they are equals in every way - an eloquent, painstaking, timeless collection of one unexpected, evocative observation after another. The appeal of Didion's writing is often to glimpse the author underneath her thick and specific veils of details, to marvel at the way her specifics are often more telling about her than about what she's writing - her own sense of dislocation amidst the silly late-60's music industry, her heartbreak within a charred orchid greenhouse, her rather endless defensiveness of California in Hollywood board rooms and Beverly Hills restaurants. In that, my favorite piece in this flawless collection is the 3-page description of Georgia O'Keefe: "'The men' believed it impossible to paint New York, so Georgia O'Keefe painted New York. 'The men' didn't think much of her bright color, so she made it brighter. The men yearned toward Europe so she went to Texas." It's a proud and bold description of a proud and bold woman, but what it really is is a treatise on what it means to be inspired and emboldened by the work and life of someone who came before you. A similar piece could be written on the uncompromising career of Didion, and it could be written following any essay in The White Album.
16 people found this helpful
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Frank Donnelly
4.0 out of 5 stars A Really Interesting and Erudite Series of Essays, Will NOT Appeal to Every Reader, Sip Don’t Gulp!
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2023
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Personally I love Joan Didion. I think this affects my enjoyment and even fascination with all of her work, including “The White Album”. Again, personally this was a five star reading experience for me. However I feel quite positive that this work will not appeal to every reader. It very much depends on what one is looking for…

Joan Didion writes both fiction and non fiction. She wrote very interesting and introspective essays about the sixties and seventies. This work is a series of non fiction essays, largely about California during that timeframe. Of all of the works of Joan Didion that I have thus far read, this work reminds me most of “Sloughing Towards Bethlehem”, which remains my favorite non fiction work of Joan Didion.

I always read Joan Didion when I have a chance to sit quietly in solitude with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. I clear my head of all distractions. I then sort of lose myself in her thoughts and words. If my mind begins to drift I take a break. If I need to look up references and persons I do so. If it takes me a month to read a work such as this, and it did, so be it…

Joan Didion has always been something of an enigma to me. All photographs of her have seem to have the same look on her face. I know she had a husband and child die within approximately one year of each other. That part of her life is documented in “The Year of Magical Thinking”. In this work being reviewed Joan Didion speaks of suffering throughout her life from severe migraines. I either never knew that or it failed to register with me. I can’t help but wonder if facts such as that affect bother countenance and her writing. I can tell you that I am enthralled by Joan Didion, but I have no idea if you will be.

In summary, once again I loved this work by Joan Didion. I am attempting to read all of her work in chronological order. However I definitely need a break between her works and it will take several years to complete this project. She is simply too deep and requires too much thought. I never read Joan Didion to the exclusion of all other literature. I never read her work when I am rushed. I always sip, I never gulp. In the event that it matters, I did prefer “Sloughing Towards Bethlehem” to “The White Album”. Thank You for taking the time to read this review.
32 people found this helpful
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Todd
5.0 out of 5 stars relaxing read
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2024
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Great relaxed reading. Nice accounts of travel and what I call “zoom ins” of bits of history. Miss Didion is they say she is.
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Hubert Halidol
5.0 out of 5 stars I love her
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2024
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I love her
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Claudia Crowley
3.0 out of 5 stars I paid money for this?
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2020
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I bought this because somebody said it was perfect, exquisite writing. The content is somewhat interesting. She sure got around. But the writing? I'll update this review when I can copy a few sentences so that you can judge for yourself.
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Tanuki
5.0 out of 5 stars Such a Cool Book, Especially for Older Southern Californians
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2020
Verified Purchase
Didion is such a wonderful, insightful, and original writer, it's a pleasure to read her thoughts on even the most mundane subjects, such as CalTrans, as she brings perspicacious wit to every masterfully-crafted sentence. I'd forgotten that I'd borrowed this book from the Canoga Park branch of the LA Public Library when I worked there as a clerk back in the 1980s, and was surprised at how immediately recognizable some of the chapters were to me, and how deep their impressions had made on me. The essay on her migraines in particular resounded and brought back the very apartment bedroom I was in when I first read it. Especially if you're a writer, Didion is a must because of her superb craft, but her unique take on experience can transport virtually any reader to another time-space continuum.
13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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cecile
5.0 out of 5 stars moving
Reviewed in France on March 24, 2024
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moving and complexe
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JDG
5.0 out of 5 stars Top author from 60’s and70’s. Read with “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” in tandem
Reviewed in Canada on December 8, 2018
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Classic from the 70’s
One person found this helpful
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rsveeravalli
5.0 out of 5 stars My kind of intellectual
Reviewed in India on December 4, 2019
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Ms Didion is a fine mind with a felicitous command over English. A delight to read. The white album is her defining piece!
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Filipe Quintans
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect
Reviewed in Brazil on January 15, 2018
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Didion escreve com fluidez de estilo e voz demarcada. Seus ensaios são um deleite aos olhos. Sem dúvida um dos grandes talentos da literatura americana.
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archi reaper
5.0 out of 5 stars Presicion sutil!!!!
Reviewed in Spain on August 24, 2019
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Como siempre Joan Didion tiene la capacidad de mostrar la realidad de la costa oeste norteamericano y más, sin obviedad, una crítica sin enojo, sobre problemas tan actuales aunque los haya escrito antes y durante 1979. Ojalá la tomáramos en cuenta hoy con tanto feminismo “sobre evidente” y tanta mentira dada por verdad
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