A really interesting collection of essays - offering a range of observations, interpretations, and critiques of the politically powerful, the wealthy, and more.

I've always preferred Didion's non-fiction to her fiction (which is a real shame, because she wrote about topics and places that are of considerable interest to me).

Recommended.

This is a very good book. It contains Didion's excellent articles from decades gone by.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I read paperback version.

Reading about historical events through the eyes of Joan Didion is an unforgettable experience. Her essays are written in such imagery that one can't wait for the next one.

Joan Didion is a fascinating creature, I think, who has a magical way of writing. Here she shares her experience of politics, California, and general social commentary. Where Didion is concerned, words are indeed weapons and her knife is razor sharp.

First published in 1993, this collection of essays by a master of the form display her incisive, yet cool gaze, as always. I was expecting more personal pieces – but these range across place, from fire storms in California to New York, and politics, and issues rather than touching more on the personal.
The After Henry of the title refers to a tribute to Henry Robbins, Didion’s friend and editor, which is one of the few personal pieces. A highlight was definitely a look at the Reagans in the White House in In the Realm of the Fisher King, which throws a very glaring, and coruscating spotlight on Nancy and Ronald. Also fascinating was Sentimental Journeys, an exploration of the way the rape of a white woman was reported by that city’s media.

It's Joan Didion. It's perfect.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

My experience with Joan Didion had been reading her intensely personal essays about a her life. Which is why I was expecting this book to be filled with personal narratives. Instead, I found essay about politics and economics and I found myself entranced in an unexpected way. These are topics I had only cursory knowledge about and Didion's brief glimpses into them left me yearning for more.

After Henry is an interesting collection of essays written by Joan Didion (predominantly during the 1980s) that were originally published in The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker.

The first essay, ‘After Henry’, which serves as a sort of introduction to the collection, is arguably the most personal of all the pieces, dealing as it does with the death of Didion’s former editor, Henry Robbins, and her realisation that time will eventually catch up with everyone. It is a very moving tribute to a man who was clearly a dear friend as well as an inspirational figure career-wise for Didion.

The remainder of the book is divided into three sections, namely ‘Washington’, ‘California’ and ‘New York’. The ‘Washington’ section deals with politics (or what should perhaps now be referred to as political history) as portrayed and sometimes created in the media. Figures such as Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, George Bush and Michael Dukakis feature heavily, as do the lesser known people who guided their political ambitions and public personas. Some of these political essays seem rather long and it is hard to maintain attention throughout, but there certainly contain some insightful observations that have been borne out over time. Of course, they were probably a lot more compelling at the time of original publication, when the Reagan presidency and the subsequent election campaign were ongoing.

The ‘California’ section is much more varied in terms of its subject matter, including essays on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and the media reception she faced after being freed/taken into custody, life in the state and the dreams of childhood, earthquakes, the film business, the mayoral career of Tom Bradley, wildfires and the murder of Roy Radin. There is an eclectic mix of thoughts, facts and predictions, and this section probably has something to offer to every reader.

The final section, ‘New York’, contains only one essay, which concerns the infamous Central Park jogger rape case (an infamy compounded by the fact that a miscarriage of justice is now known to have taken place), but also comments on sexual violence in general, racism and day-to-day life (and death) in the city. It is a powerful, disquieting and alarming essay to end the book with.

After Henry is a great collection of essays and a highly recommended read.

This is not my bag; Ms. Didion always gives me that "intellectual medicine" vibe and I"m just not interested.

I know Joan Didion has a massive fan base, so, I chose to read this to try to understand that.
I am not as big a fan of non fiction as I am fiction. But after I have read Didion's work, I much more prefer her non fiction. Yet, this particular book failed to get my attention. I can recognize that Didion is a wonder writer by the way she approaches her subject, giving more without it getting heavy. However, I guess, I just didn't find the subjects as interesting. Especially since I am not from California.

In my opinion one of Mrs. Didion's best titles. Happy to see a new copy out in the book world.

Unable to complete full review. See note to publisher.

This is the first Joan Didion I've read, and I admit her writing is lovely, flowing, and poignant. However, I must say I had to keep my dictionary by my side the entire time reading the book. Sentences seemed to run on forever (commas, semicolons, parentheses, etc.) that I had to reread a lot of them to get the point.

I wasn't as interested in the Washington section of the book - I'm not big on politics and didn't understand a lot of what she wrote. I loved reading the California section - I lived in CA for 28 years and remember some of these events, names, etc. I learned some great information that I previously had not been aware. The New York section was good - I remember the Central Park jogger and enjoyed reading the authors thoughts.

No question that Ms. Didion is very talented and wonderful writer; but I just had a hard time following her sentence structure. Will I read any of her other work? Of course!

There's not another storyteller like Joan Didion. She can take the most boring fact and spin a narrative yarn around it that boggles the mind. She can tie so many elements together in telling a story and making a point about politics, culture, or the identity of a place that reading her essays feels like being schooled in an art. In this collection, she manages to make topics like Hawaiian real estate of decades gone by interesting.

Henry was Didion's longtime, trusted and beloved editor, who passed away relatively young and suddenly in the 14th street subway station in New York. He'd guided her through so much, both artistically and personally, that it was a significant moment for her to publish after he was gone.
The intriguingly-titled "In the Realm of the Fisher King" looks at the Reagan administration years through the eyes and experience of Peggy Noonan, his speechwriter. She tells anecdotes that show the former President and First Lady in an honest, less than flattering light.

All of the essays are like time capsules, opening up to show richly described, detailed records of events that were major current events in the country at the time. The standout pieces for me were "Girl of the Golden West", about the kidnapped Patty Hearst and how society viewed her when she came back from her Stockholm Syndrome-experience, and "Sentimental Journeys" about the infamous Central Park jogger rape case and the miscarriage of justice that occurred.

This was of course written before 2002, when it became known that another man beyond the group of convicted suspects was actually responsible for the crime, igniting another firestorm of controversy in an already contentious and hotly debated case.

What I love most in reading Joan Didion is the seemingly effortless beauty of her words, that she can tell something so emotional and evocative and touching in such a simple, aching way. It's what brings me back over and over to another essay (not from this collection) "Goodbye to All That". It's on display throughout this one too, like in her telling of speaking at her daughter's school about when she knew she would be a writer - "...we never reach a point at which our lives lie before us as a clearly marked open road, never have and never should expect a map to the years ahead, never do close those circles that seem, at thirteen and fourteen and nineteen, so urgently in need of closing."

Of course, in addition to that writerly richness, she also has her trademark brand of biting, acerbic wit that manages to paint a person or a scene so vividly: "The airport looked Central American, between governments."

Didion also has always had a fascinating ability to draw surprising but relevant parallels, and the best display of this here was the Patty Hearst essay, where she highlights the California background and connection of the kidnapped heiress with those emigrants who originally settled the West Coast state.

Partially quoting both a letter from a surviving member of the Donner party and an emigrant diary entry of a relative of hers, she writes a lesson learned from these distinct yet somehow connected events: Suffice it to say. Don't examine your feelings, they're no help at all. Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can. We need a goddamn South American revolutionary mixed up in this thing like a hole in the head. This was a California girl, and she was raised on a history that placed not much emphasis on why. She was never an idealist, and this pleased no one. She was tainted by survival. She came back from the other side with a story no one wanted to hear.

Some of the subjects feel dated, like observations on the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis versus George Bush the first, or various other pieces taking the political temperature of the country. And yet in "Sentimental Journeys", she writes a piece so fresh and utterly relevant that it could be written today, that is being written by other authors about other incidents, where the names and locations and principle players have changed but the gist remain more or less the same, today.

Didion has that knack for teasing out a tellable story from the most disturbing of the country's headlines, and After Henry shows that often, those stories had powerful lasting effects.

First thank you to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for the opportunity to read and review this book. I do love Joan Didion's work. She has a great grasp and use of language that manages to seamlessly flow from dire sadness to joy. After Henry was originally published in 1993 and the topics addressed in these essays reflect that. Unfortunately there is a very dated quality to the entries by virtue of their being so focused on the past current events. For readers who are not acquainted with the late 1980s and early 1990s American political situation the essays are going to offer a relatively confusing story. The essays will be more enjoyable and relavant for readers who very familiar with the time period. Without any contextual background the works are less enjoyable. The essays are beautifully written and do offer Didion's very insightful ideas about a very divisive period in American history.

I love a good book of essays. I enjoyed this one, as I have others by Joan Didion. She has a way with the word that is enviable. The only reason I gave this a 3 is that I found myself skipping through several of the essays. They are long, but sometimes I started losing my way, or my interest, part way through them. There are pieces that were very enjoyable and made me think. I'd recommend this book, but if you haven't read Didion in the past, perhaps start with a previous effort and then move to this one. Thank you to Net Galley and Open Road Integrated Media for an e-ARC of this title, in exchange for my honest opinion.