“South and West” by Joan Didion

My dad used to buy me unusual presents. For example – my high school graduation gift was an autographed picture of Joan Didion. I framed the picture and the letter that came with it. She wrote, “Garry, I’m sorry this took so long… Simon and Schuster had just sent a little publicity glossy, and I was trying to find an actual photograph – this one is not very good but it is most definitely not a publicity picture.” It shows Joan, standing in Hawaii on a balcony on a very windy day. The picture and the letter remain among my most treasured things, and Joan is still one of my favorite authors. Her new book, “South and West” is one long essay about a road trip through the South, and another shorter essay about California, both taken from an old notebook of unpublished work. The first essay opens, “The idea was to start in New Orleans and from there we had no plan.” Joan and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, then drove east through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In Clarksdale there was a lunch of, “fried chicken and gravy, white rice, fresh green peas, and a peach pie for dessert. The heat was so intense that the ice was already melted in the Waterford water goblets before we sat down at the table.” Typical Didion: Stunning and simple at the same time. In the second essay she set off to California to write about Patty Heart, but ended up doing other things. “I did walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, wearing my first pair of high-heeled shoes, bronze kid De Liso Debs pumps with three-inch heels.” This is a tiny book, one could read it in one hour. However, like all of Didion’s books, it leaves you with the sense that you love her writing, and would inspire you to read just about anything she wrote, even something as mundane as her supermarket shopping list.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.