Let Me Tell You What I Mean

This book of essays is a scan of Didion’s work over forty years of her magnificient career. Those of us who eagerly await any of her writing are very excited to read this collection. Why are we so eagerly awaiting any of her books? Didion’s powers of observation and succinct writing style are masterful. Like many journalists turned novelists, she has learned to perfectly convey a mood, attitude, or cultural shift in a shorthand developed through painstaking craft. All of the essays in this volume are relevant and interesting. The foreword, written by Hilton Als, is a perfect summation of Didion’s relevancy and power. Als states that this power comes from her nonfiction reading like fiction: that is to say, it has metaphorical power. I, for one, live with Watch out for the snake eyes from her novel Play It as It Lays.

For writers, her Why I Write essay is a master class.