We tell ourselves stories : Joan Didion and the American dream machine / Alissa Wilkinson.
| Author/creator | Wilkinson, Alissa author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication | New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, [2025] |
| Copyright Date | ©2025 |
| Description | xix, 250 pages ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Portion of title | Joan Didion and the American dream machine |
| Contents | Introduction -- We tell ourselves origin stories -- We dream of greatness -- We tell ourselves truths -- We show ourselves the apocalypse -- We doubt our own stories -- We fret over stardom -- We trade substance for spectacle -- We weave political fictions -- We need heroes in disaster -- We make our own endings -- Epilogue: What Didion means. |
| Abstract | In this cultural biography, New York Times film critic Alissa Wilkinson examines Joan Didion's influence through the lens of American mythmaking. As a young girl, Didion was infatuated with John Wayne and his on-screen bravado, and was fascinated by her California pioneer ancestry and the infamous Donner Party. The mythos that preoccupied her early years continued to influence her work as a magazine writer and film critic in New York, offering glimmers of the many stories Didion told herself that would come to unravel over the course of her career. But out west, show business beckoned. We Tell Ourselves stories traces Didion's jounrey from New York to her arrival in Hollywood as a screenwriter at the twilight of the old studio system. She spent much of her life deeply embroiled in the glitz and glamor of the Los Angeles elite, where she acutely observed--and denounced--how the nation's fears and dreams were sensationalized on screen. Wilkinson dissects the cinematic motifs and machinations that informed Didion's writing--and how her writing, ultimately, demonstrated Hollywood's addictive grasp on the American imagination. --Adapted from jacket. |
| Genre/form | Biographies. |
| Genre/form | Biographies. |
| ISBN | 9781324092612 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1324092610 (hardcover) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | PS3554 .I33 Z947 2025 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |