#joan-didion

#joan-didion

Didion describes San Bernadino County as 'the country of the teased hair and the Capris and the girls for whom all life's promise comes down to a waltz-length white wedding dress and the birth of a Kimberly or a Sherry or a Debbi and a Tijuana divorce and a return to hairdressers' school.'

Didion's recollections focus less on Hearst and more on her own contradictory identity shaped by her California roots, showcasing her conflicted feelings about the place.

Dunham articulates her sense of mismatched identity with New York, feeling like an outsider despite her lifelong ties to the city.

"Many diarists feel that way: Sheila Hancock wrote about destroying decades' worth of hers: Maybe this vicious, verging-on-insane woman is the real me, but if it is I don't want my daughters to find out."

The person beneath the published voice remains elusive. By design, the mortal Joan stayed hidden. Despite the directness of her prose, one can never quite work out what she's really trying to say.