Here it is: the official press release for my forthcoming book, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Louise Braverman, 516-647-6034
louise.braverman@harpercollins.com
An intimate exploration of the life, craft, and legacy of Joan Didion, one of the most revered and influential writers—an artist who continues to inspire fans and creatives to cultivate practices of deep attention, rigorous interrogation and beautiful style.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION
By Evelyn McDonnell
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“McDonnell offers a thoughtful assessment of Didion’s importance but doesn’t shy away from Didion’s flaws…An appreciative portrait of an iconic author.” —Kirkus
“Evelyn McDonnell has written a wonderfully fitting tribute to Joan Didion: one that avoids simple platitudes, approaching the great writer with a fierce, probing intelligence, flawless language, and the impulse, which drove Didion’s finest work, to understand the dreams of another.”—Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
“The task of writing seriously about another writer must be daunting, but how do you even approach channeling the life and mind of narrative journalist trailblazer and cultural critic icon Joan Didion? Well, The World According to Joan Didion according to Evelyn McDonnell is a brilliant, visceral interpretation of ‘the queen of California noir.’ So keen that I caught myself smiling, asking myself, ‘How did she do that?’—as I do while poring over Didion—and secretly wishing I could write like that myself.”—Allison Wolfe, Bratmobile singer and riot grrrl
“McDonnell’s deep knowledge and expertise shine brightly in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION, a heartfelt guide to Didion’s wide library of work that will not only serve newcomers looking to dive in, but also change the long-standing perceptions of the many who’ve read Didion’s classics numerous times.”
—Alex Segura, bestselling author of Secret Identity
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In THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION (HarperOne; 09/26/23), Evelyn McDonnell, acclaimed journalist, essayist, critic, and university professor, provides an intimate exploration of the life, craft, and legacy of one of the most respected and significant writers of our time.
Joan Didion reshaped the geography of American literature by redirecting readers’ attention away from the east and toward the way the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. She wrote about the world she knew—the rivers, the freeways, the mountains, the ocean, the buildings—and she wrote about it with such an eye for detail and an ear for music, and with such a mix of appreciation and skepticism, the reader feels like they are along for the ride.
In THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION, McDonnell provides a guide to the life of Joan Didion, groundbreaking journalist, essayist, novelist, and screenwriter. This book serves as a notebook and a map, a treasure hunt, an interrogation. Follow along with McDonnell as she talks to those who knew Didion and were inspired by her. Travel to the places Didion lived and documented, dig through archives and dive deep into her writing. This book is a meditation on the people, settings, and objects that propelled Didion’s prose and an invitation to journalists, storytellers, and all life adventurers to “throw themselves into the convulsions of the world,” as Didion once said.
In THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION readers will gain deeper insight into Didion including:
- Didion started writing when her mother gave her a notebook in childhood to keep her from pestering her with her thoughts and never stopped, until she was incapacitated by disease in her 80s
- Didion was famously shy in public. In private, she was a supportive, loving nurturer, mentoring many other writers, family members, and friends
- Interviews with people who knew Didion well, including photographer Julian Wasser (shortly before he passed), her college boyfriend, relatives, and colleagues.
- Beginning in the late 1960s, Didion worked behind the scenes in Hollywood as a screenwriter, script doctor, and producer. She fought to create nuanced, unstereotypical female characters in such movies as A Star Is Born and The Panic in Needle Park.
- Didion is often praised as a great stylist and a master of prose. But she also adamantly critiqued the way narratives are constructed. Didion merged autobiography, reporting, and narrative fiction, helping to forge New Journalism and autofiction.
- The exploration of Didion as an activist journalist including her early article on police misconduct and her brave investigation into the wrongful arrest of the Central Park Five, long before others had questioned it
- In her 87 years, Joan Didion wrote five novels, hundreds of articles many of which were collected in books, several movies, and a play.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION is the perfect literary companion forreaders embarking on new journeys. Didion’s writing was often extremely personal; she confessed her madness, her grief, her guilt, her love, her failures. This book will transform the way readers explore life around them, helping them see the world through Didion’s eyes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Evelyn McDonnell has written or coedited multiple books, including Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl and Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways. She has been a pop culture writer at the Miami Herald and a senior editor at the Village Voice. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and publications, including the New York Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Ms., and Billboard. She teaches journalism at Loyola Marymount University and lives in San Pedro, California. https://populismblog.wordpress.com/
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION
By Evelyn McDonnell
Published by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
On-sale: September 26, 2023 | $26.99 | Hardcover | ISBN: 9780063289079
Also Available as an eBook and Audiobook
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