Ask An Expert on Joan Didion / California Book Club: Where I Was From

Hi, it’s Vanessa, your ENLIGHTENMENT host,

Here’s the latest pick for my bimonthly book club of fiction/non-fiction focused on the Golden State.

Along with the book, I invite a special guest to each club meeting, someone who is an expert or very connected to the theme of the book and can answer our questions about the topic. So even if you haven’t finished / opened the book, you can still be part of the conversation.

Joan Didion would have turned 91 years old on December 5 so in honor of this famous Sacramentan, I selected her 2003 book, . It combines historical writing, journalism and memoir to show a history of California as well as Didion's own experiences living here.

I’m inviting an expert on Joan Didion’s life and literature in California to join us for a talk about the book. Jennifer Sander, a former editor for Random House and literary historian, also offers “Joan Didion’s Sacramento,” a two-hour driving tour of Didion’s homes and hangouts during her time growing up here.

Bring your comments, opinions and questions about Joan Didion— nothing is too small or dumb to discuss.

Below is a summary of Where I Was From. Join me and Jennifer at the Sierra 2 Center for a great talk.

Claim your seat -.

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In this arresting amalgam of memoir and historical timeline, Didion—a native Californian—reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history, and ours.

Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to California's ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic’s often tenuous relationship to reality. Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons.

Whether she is writing about her pioneer ancestors or privileged sexual predators, robber barons or writers (not excluding herself), Didion is an unparalleled observer, and this book is at once intellectually provocative and deeply personal.

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