Democracy

Didion's style in this book is truly arresting. At points, the reader is just stopped, in consideration of what the author has just revealed. Her book is interesting in its style. She does in fact talk to the reader several times through the book. She develops the characters in glimpses and the plot as well; as she moves through the story of her protagonist's life. She describes a prior attempt at Democracy, that did not come to fruition. And she mixes in a dash of American Democracy and its elections and nominations.Set in circa 1975 mostly, it speaks about the end of the Viet Nam war, but through the side long glances of people who were involved, but not talking about the fighting. Her depiction of the era and the locales is very precise, despite its exposition in little bits and pieces. The story is gripping, although not suspenseful. The book surely does exhibit Didion in one of her best written fictional books.As a journalistically styled piece the book does a very fine job of helping people start to understand the ephemeral attitude of the people and the country in the days of the war. Disillusionment abounds. Death and destruction and human suffering are implied, but not explicitly discussed. And the message, that of one who is always trying to find oneself, but may be lost in her own mind, is universal.The book is especially recommended for readers who are interested in the late `60's early `70's era in America. The book is truly a fine piece of literature, surrounded by events and scenery, much more than driven by the plot. But the statement is well worth reading.

I have four of of Didion's five novels (I haven't read the first one yet) and this is my favorite. And although I haven't yet read all of her non-fiction, this is my favorite so far of any of her books.The writing is pristine. It is very spare. Every word, every sentence well chosen.There actually isn't much of a story. It's more a study in character. It's really more like a long short story than a novel.But it held my interest throughout.If you love the craftsmanship of writing, include this book on your list of great examples.

Enjoyed the book, but it is not at the same level as Didion's essays which are masterful. The fictional Joan Didion that is inside the pages of the novel is an interesting ploy but becomes a little tiresome as the book continues. If looking for thought-provoking employment of metafiction I'd go for Pale Fire or If on a Winter's Night a Traveller.

Just another great Didion tale. This one, of an Hawaiian WASP family and their travails. One of the great writers of our time.

Boy, is Joan Didion great, or what?

This book goes nowhere. The characters are unlikable & one dimensional. It hurt my head to discern why anything any of these people were doing had any importance. U want to read about Hawaii? There are a many other BETTER well-researched & articulated books about Hawaii. I gave this book a 1/2 out of 5 stars in m book club. Author puts herself in the story, then dwells on it, is infatuated w/the protagonist = who is vapid; storyline/plot = have no idea what it was, just killing time. You will never get these hours back--read something else fun, educational, informative, interesting or even sexy. This book is just a jumble of words without any meaning.

MS. DIDION A GREAT WRITER OF THE 60'S AND BEYOND...DESERVING TO BE READ

Ah...Joan Didion’s Democracy…opaque, discursive, mysterious, hums with a sense of quietly lurking menace, fragmented time, a time, Didion observes...as "Joan Didion," inserting herself into her work of fiction, an observer in this novel, who is relating her imaginative yarn as a journalist's quest for an assembled-and-organized meaning, a "Rosebud," to all these disparate snippets of time, place, personality, calling cards, rumors, last-minute flights to exotic destinations, press clippings, photos, oddly angled interviews, flash back, flash forward, all against the backdrop of the 1975 American evacuation from Southeast Asia...a time, a fantastic time, captured in the detached, almost surreal DidionVoice, observently, taking all into consideration as what one character notes as "'the long view' (by which) I (Didion) believe she meant history, more exactly the particular undertow of having and not having, the convulsions of a world largely unaffected by the individual efforts of anyone in it," a characterization various men and women of a certain disposition, including a central character, the well-heeled political wife Inez Christian Victor, tend to deny by virtue of their own experiences but yet are randomly, indiscriminately swept up in...This is a novel of ellipses. Things fall apart, but they also trail off… Haunting, with sentences so sharp and surprising and economical and hinting at such depths of facticity and reasoned consideration that I had to stop and stare at these...these...these gists of worlds below the surface, trying to imagine how Didion manages to thread so much together into tight, lucid epigrams and aphorisms.That said, a Didion “like” does not mean “for every taste.” She seems to piss off as many people as she delights. I'm a Vietnam-era vet, and the evacuation is vivid in my memory, as is the surreality of Michael Herr’s Dispatches and Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato, and there were still Jack Lovett-style cowboys/international men of mystery aboard when I joined the US intelligence community. I enjoyed—no, I delighted in--the book's patient, deflecting discursiveness more than most readers will. Reviewers go off on her for her seemingly random structures.As some literatus has blurbed on the back cover, "Didion can dissect an entire society with a single phrase." Well, here, she dissects a world at a very specific moment in chaotic time. I’m absolutely stuck on Joan Didion and have begun ripping through her oeuvre, fact, fiction, essays and all. I really go for her gonzo style…

Like a trip back in time to the 20th century... True Didion I actually passed it on to share it with friends. Funny this was not seized for a movie or or TV mini series at the time.