I have to say I have always wondered how Didion can turn a personal misfortune so immediately into a text. I leave it at that, because it is simply wonderment. This may simply be an unusual skill she has.
Well, she's good at writing about anything, and there's that quip by Faulkner--and I paraphrase--about how he'd sell his grandmother for subject matter. Horrible to say, but from a careet standpoint, the deaths of Didion's husband and daughter were a godsend, as the first memoir led to a play and this one will surely do well on the strength of the previous. I don't know how well she was doing with the filmwriting and you know, if she was still writing novels, that the market for fiction is not so good. All to say that personal tragedy for a writer can be good for her work.
Well, she's good at writing about anything, and there's that quip by Faulkner--and I paraphrase--about how he'd sell his grandmother for subject matter. Horrible to say, but from a careet standpoint, the deaths of Didion's husband and daughter were a godsend, as the first memoir led to a play and this one will surely do well on the strength of the previous. I don't know how well she was doing with the filmwriting and you know, if she was still writing novels, that the market for fiction is not so good. All to say that personal tragedy for a writer can be good for her work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post, quite worthwhile material.
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