I wanted to enjoy this book so much more than I did, especially since I received an e-arc of it and it was a highly anticipated read of mine since I love Joan Didion.

But I think it goes without saying that it’s incredibly hard to capture an author’s voice when you’re not only another author, but one with a style so vastly different from your subject’s.

There’s a good portion of this book that is from the author’s personal experience, or her relating to Joan’s life in some way. That took me away from the main points this book was trying to make, since now I was being pushed to care about someone else. Definitely a mixed bag for me.

Overall I settled on 3 stars, since I enjoyed the insights I got into Joan Didion’s creative process and works. But I don’t think it’s necessarily essential reading material if you like her.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc, and apologies for getting this review up so late haha

A Glimpse Through Didion's Lens: A Review of "The World According to Joan Didion"
Evelyn McDonnell's "The World According to Joan Didion" isn't your typical biography. It's a tapestry woven from the threads of Didion's life, work, and the recurring motifs that shaped her worldview. Instead of a chronological march through her years, McDonnell uses objects and experiences like "Snake," "Hotel," and "Girl" as portals, offering fresh insights into the familiar themes of mortality, memory, and California's shimmering underbelly.

McDonnell, a scholar and fellow traveler in the Didion landscape, avoids hagiography. She acknowledges Didion's flaws, her complexities, and the ways her privilege shaped her observations. This nuanced approach creates a portrait that feels honest and layered, much like Didion's own prose.

The book shines when McDonnell delves into Didion's creative process. We see the meticulous note-taking, the obsessive rewriting, the constant questioning that fueled her sharp, elegant sentences. Readers who admire Didion's craft will find themselves nodding in recognition and gleaning invaluable lessons.

However, the book isn't solely for devotees. It serves as an invitation to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the world around them. McDonnell encourages us to follow Didion's lead, to embrace curiosity, to pay attention to the details, and to challenge the narratives we're fed. In a world of constant noise and distraction, this call to be more present and discerning feels particularly resonant.

While some have critiqued the occasional intrusion of McDonnell's own experiences, these moments also add a personal touch, reminding us that Didion's work continues to resonate and inspire across generations.

Ultimately, "The World According to Joan Didion" is a thoughtful exploration that lingers long after the final page. It's a guide to appreciating Didion's legacy, a call to sharpen our own observations, and a reminder that the world, with all its complexities and contradictions, deserves our undivided attention.

Recommendation: Highly recommended for fans of Joan Didion, aspiring writers, and anyone seeking a more mindful engagement with the world.

As a Didion die hard fan, I really wanted to like this, but it falls in that weird genre that isn't a biography, but contains interviews and the author visiting locations Didion frequented and just never led to anything really compelling or a new perspective. You might be interested if you're getting into Didion, but I'd just skip to reading her books and watching the doc about her, The Center Will Not Hold.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

I hag trouble getting into this one. The stories didn’t interest me although o love Joan didion.

I found Myself very bored

This is a unique and enjoyable approach to learning more about Joan DIdion - both about her life and her writing. The author states up=front that this is not meant to be a biography (and in fact recommends "The Last Love Song" by Tracy Dougherty) for those interested in a comprehensive and well-written biography. The book is structured around themes such as "Snakes" that then take us on a deep dive into moments of Joan's life as well as the life of the author. The author conducted interviews so this book is more than just glimpses from her own perspective and reflections. I found this book very interesting and the premise worked well for me. I learned new things about Joan Didion and also gained an appreciation of some of the "moments" in her life.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperOne for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

I read this book knowing Joan Didion is an iconic author with deep roots in the California and LA area, who got even more attention later in life with, The Year of Magical Thinking (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...). I read this as a NetGalley proof in exchange for my honest review.

I read the book to learn more about Ms. Didion, and for that, it was quite helpful. I think anyone who is a fan or interested in learning more about her life will appreciate Evelyn McDonnell's bio for informational and educational purposes. With that said, for being only 220-pages, I found the narrative timeline disjointed, and the writing style did not draw me in. I can't explain exactly why, except to say that it felt introspective, with facts popping out in clumps, but without a backdrop of me caring about the subject as much as I had expected I would. For those reasons, I kept setting it aside, slipping past the publication date fall 2023, and finally finishing in early December.

Ms. Didion was a fascinating and much beloved person, as well as a very accomplished writer. I'm glad I read the book, and will seek out some of Ms. Didion's work in the future, but am not sure I would read any more books by this author. #netgalley #joandidion #theworldaccordingtojoandidion

This was a really mixed bag for me -- enjoyed the chapters that explored Didion's personal life and family relationships the most. The pretense of structuring the book around objects that recur in Didion's work felt highly strained at points. ("Snake" is fair enough, but "jogger"?) The text also could have used a heavier editorial hand -- there were some distracting repetitions (how many times does the fact that Quintana was Didion's "only child" need to be mentioned?) and clunky turns of phrase.

Evelyn McDonnell takes a unique approach with writing this biography. The World According to Joan Didion serves as a love letter to Didion. The story beautifully details her life, career, and interpersonal relationships. While the book was clearly well researched and contained a lot of information, it didn't feel overly complicated to read. The writing wad clear and concise. Overall this book was a great tribute to Joan Didion.

I enjoyed this biography and overview of her life but was already familiar with a lot of the information having been a fan of Didion’s writing myself. I would have liked to hear more of McDonnell’s personal point of view.

The author takes us on a jaunt around the world to the places and homes where Ms. Gidion lived and worked.
She has collected anecdotes and recollections that shape a picture of her admiration for this recently deceased writer. She does not omit the wrinkles and warts on her heroine, however. My thanks to the author and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the uncorrected proof of this book. A different take on a biography, The World According to Joan Didion is something like a documentary mixed with a love letter. The author’s approach was not a straight forward story of Joan’s life, but instead a more broad portrait of Didion as a writer and as a human, with all the flaws that come with being human. Evelyn McDonald is clearly intimately familiar with Didion’s work and well researched on the author’s life, and beyond that conducted numerous interviews and research beyond what McDonald already knew about her subject. The book felt well researched but not overly academic to read.

Personally, I am familiar with Didion and her work, and so I went into it with a high level understanding of who Joan was and what she wrote. I appreciated getting a more personal look at Joan that I hadn’t read in other sources. I don’t know if this book is for someone who knows nothing of Joan or her work. It may not be the best book to read as a primer, but instead after at least reading some Didion. And perhaps watching The Center Will Not Hold.

Overall an informative and enjoyable read, I learned a good deal and had a good time reading.

"This is not Joan's complete story. It is more of a notebook, trying to remember what it was for her to be her, at different places and different times." Not a biography, McDonnell gives us thematic chapters that go back and forth in time and place, illustrating her themes (pioneer California, flowers, water, family, NYC, etc.).

There's a lot of praise, admiration, and a slew of examples of how Didion's work influenced countless writers over the years. Coincidentally, I happened to be reading one of those writers at the same time. Myriam Gurba's Creep includes the essay "It's Time to Take California Back from Joan Didion". McDonnell quotes from this essay in a few passages, and while acknowledging the privilege Didion experienced, leaves much of the criticism out of this book. I was glad to see multiple sides of the "Didion bought the dress that Linda Kasabian wore at trial" episode. Reading Gurba's essay helps to round out McDonnell's cult of Saint Joan portrayal.

Didion's writing is haunting, evocative. The World According to Joan Didion encourages the reader to dive back into her catalog. I see McDonnell's attempt at mimicking the style, and we read her accounts of traveling to the same places, buildings that Didion frequented. "Occasionally I insert myself into the narrative". Yes, she does!

My thanks to NetGalley, HarperOne for ARC. The World According to Joan Didion was published in September 2023.

I am guessing that, for a certain avid reader who also aims to write, choosing to read this book is a no-brainer. But, I am also willing to guess that the appeal of this book is far broader than that. Joan Didion—her life, work, marriage—continues to fascinate readers young and old, and I consider myself a fan among them. Years ago, my husband and I contributed to the Kickstarter that eventually allowed Griffin Dunne, Didion's nephew, to film the documentary that would become The Center Will Not Hold. The campaign was necessary because, despite Didion's popularity, Dunne could not get the funding needed to complete the project. The campaign, in donations large and small, doubled the $80,000 goal he initially set to complete the interviews and go to post-production. Dunne was most impressed by the new fans of Didion, a much younger audience than he expected, who came to the film's rescue.

Given this preface, you will understand I am biased in my fandom. But honestly, I dare you to read a book by Didion and not be impressed. And, if you're not willing to wade in too deep, this book will give you the perfect introduction to her life and work.

I found this to be a very interesting look into the life of Joan Didion, the journalist, essayist and screenwriter, who died in 2021 of Parkinson's disease. I loved the photo on the cover of this book showing a very young Didion sitting in the driver's seat of a car. Back when that photo was published, she was considered a master of the "New Journalism" along with Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, a period in her life I did not know that much about. I was more familiar with Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, but I learned many other facets of Didion's long life in the pages of this book. I would like to thank the publisher, Harper One and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful look at the fascinating Joan Didion. Clear and concise writing of which Didion would appreciate! Highly recommend this book for Didion fans but also to anyone who appreciates good writing and a good story. And Didion had all the best stories!

An excellent overview of Didion's life and her work. If you are a fan of Didion's writing and oevre,, this is an essential work for understanding her style and methods

The World According to Joan Didion
by Evelyn McDonnell
Pub Date 26 Sep 2023
HarperOne
Arts & Photography| Biographies & Memoirs| Nonfiction \(Adult\)


Netgalley and HarperOne provided me with a copy of The World According to Joan Didion for review:


Didion was a writer's writer, not only as a pioneering journalist, essayist, novelist and screenwriter, but also as a keen observer. She continues to inspire creatives and admirers to become close observers, unsentimental critics, and meticulous stylists by sharing her insights.


It is a meditation on the people, places, and objects that inspired Didion's prose and an invitation to journalists, storytellers, and life adventurers to "throw themselves into the convulsions of the world," as she once said.


The acclaimed journalist, essayist, critic, feminist, native Californian, and university professor Evelyn McDonnell interprets Didion's work for readers today. From Didion's own words, as well as those of those who knew and influenced her, The World According to Joan Didion takes readers on a journey through her life, tracing from Sacramento, Portuguese Bend, Los Angeles, and Malibu to Manhattan, Miami, and Hawaii. Her work is explored in chapters focused on the singular physical motifs of Didion's writing: Snake. Typewriter. Hotel. Notebook. Girl. Etc.

The World According to Joan Didion was the first book published after the revered writer's passing in 2021.


I give The World According to Joan Didion five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

I found this to be one of the most intellectually stimulating reads I have come across this year. Joan Didion made a name for herself long before I was born, but her words are timeless. Evelyn MacDonnell captured Didion's essence without regurgitating the the first three hits on "Didion Analysis" google results.

I wish I could drink this book up for the first time. I will definitely be recommending and purchasing a physical copy!

A stunning beautifully written dive into Didion’s work and world and how they both informed each other

The book gives an intimate look at Joan Didion. It chronicles her professional and personal life. Some of what you did not know and a deeper dive into what you may have. A few points in the book could have been better researched. The author just gave their opinion. Otherwise, Joan’s writing is given further greatness.