Let Me Tell You What I Mean: An Essay Collection (Vintage International)

This is a group of previously uncollected essays from the great Joan Didion, the author of Slouching Toward Bethlehem, The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking. Didion always seemed to me to be the writer Vogue should send to cover the Apocalypse. Clear, cool and with an eye for the telling detail. Often times books of this nature, published late in an author's career, are a last grasp to cash in on the author's reputation, but this a revealing collection of essays and will be especially enjoyable if you are familiar with Didion's work. (If you are not, I doubt you would want to start here and I would suggest any of the three books mentioned above as better starting points.) Arranged chronologically, the dozen or so essays were originally published in magazines from 1968 to 2000 and show Didion's development as a writer and thinker. They feature underground newspapers, college rejection letters, Nancy Reagan, the set designer Tony Richardson, Martha Stewart and the last days of Ernest Hemingway, a writer to whom Didion is often compared. A very early piece on not being chosen by Stanford, her first choice for college, features her effort to rework the language of the letter into something less final, perhaps her first foray into magical thinking. The piece of Nancy Reagan written when she was the First Lady of California, offers a preview of where the Republican party is headed and Last Words examines the writer's block endured by Ernest Hemingway at the end of his career. The Martha Stewart piece argues that her image problems as a tough boss would be considerably mitigated if she were a man. Highly recommended to Didion fans. And reading Joan Didion is highly recommended to anyone not already familiar with her.

Tried 3x but can’t get into this book

If you're interested in reading Joan Didion but don't know where to start, you can start here. This slim collection of her essays, dating back to 1968, shows how Didion evolved into one of America's preeminent writers.

Nobody puts them together like Ms. Didion. Some reviewer here said "tedious." That person simply wasn't paying attention. Period. Wow. Yo, "tedious," read what she says about Hemingway, then read her sentences very carefully. Oh my goodness. Next book, please, Ms. Didion. I will read this one again and again, like all your books. I must have read "Democracy" a dozen times. White, Bethlehem, Run, oh the beauty of those lovely sentences...

I like everything that I have read of Joan Didion and I have read most everything that she has written. There are more pieces from the past that need to find their way into print as this collection has proven. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Nathaniel West, James Jones, and Norman Mailer...and Joan Didion. She is in very good company.

Good Didion. Won't be disappointed.

I am excited to read this book and share it with my friend— Kate R.2021 — I have high hopes as per usual ;)Having read the first 30 pages in under an hour, I find that 1968 and gambling addictions are mor intense than I had imagined, as I do not gamble. Brilliant work, Joan.

I recommend this book to aspiring writers...it is very thought provoking for those individuals interested and invested in writing for fun or for a profession...

Joan Didion is one of my favourite writers & there's plenty of her cool incisive prose here _ but there are other much better collections of her work. For me the earlier essays worked much better than the more recent ones. The Nancy Reagan essay is fun, but rightly or wrongly Hemingway is pretty much forgotten this side of the Atlantic and I gave up on the tedious Martha Stewart chapter as I have zero interest in her. So my advice is keep going till you reach the White Room or Slouching Towards Bethlehem & you'll have a treat in store.

Joan Didion is one of the most thoughtful of American writers and most incisive when she commentates onthe social and political time that she observes. In this collection she places herself very much at the centre of her pieces and is most revealing when she discusses her own approach to writing. At times her style can become elaborated with an over indulgence in subordinate clauses but her prose is always considered and highly crafted. At its best one knows that one is reading the observations of a woman with a brilliant eye for detail and the utmost respect for the refinement of language. Highly enjoyable and informative.

I love Joan Didion’s writing but anyone considering buying this needs to know that it’s a very short collection of work which is either available elsewhere online for free or so ephemeral that it’s really not worth reading. Bit of a con, all in all. Just appreciate her classic volumes instead.

Her essays about writing touched so many buried feelings about writing. Really uplifting for me. I did not understand the references to American culture and phrases and places. A book perha[ps for New Yorkers?

Wonderful writing , thought provoking , an unflinching eye on the world , serious concentration required .