Author Of The Month

Joan Didion

Is an American novelist and essayist known for her lucid prose style and incisive depictions of social unrest and psychological fragmentation. She arrived in Los Angeles in 1964 on the way to becoming one of the most important writers of her generation, a cultural icon who changed L.A.’s perception of itself.  Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation. A sense of anxiety or dread permeates much of her work. 

At the peak of Didion's career, her writing was recognised for its significance in defining and observing American subcultures for mainstream audiences. In 1968, The New York Times referred to her early work as containing "grace, sophistication, nuance, and irony." In 2005, she won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Cricle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography.. She later adapted the book into a play, which premiered on Broadway in 2007. In 2017, Didion was profiled in the Netflix documentary The Center Will Not Hold, directed by her nephew Griffin Dune.

She has been revered for her glamorously aloof public persona as well for her infectious, revolutionary prose style, Didion was and remains famous in a way that writers seldom are anymore.