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Inez Victor knows that the major casualty of the political life is memory. But the people around Inez have made careers out of losing track. Her senator husband wants to forget the failure of his last bid for the presidency. Her husband's handler would like the press to forget that Inez's father is a murderer. And, in 1975, the year in which much of this bitterly funny novel is set, America is doing its best to lose track of its one-time client, the lethally hemorrhaging republic of South Vietnam.As conceived by Joan Didion, these personages and events constitute the terminal fallout of democracy, a fallout that also includes fact-finding junkets, senatorial groupies, the international arms market, and the Orwellian newspeak of the political class. Moving deftly from Honolulu to Jakarta, between romance, farce, and tragedy, Democracy is a tour de force from a writer who can dissect an entire society with a single phrase.… (plus d'informations)
I had a college professor who ruined Joan Didion for me -- seriously, she wanted us all to write like Joan Didion, which is so weird when you should be encouraging students to find their own voice. So, I've shied away from her work for decades and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked "Democracy."
Sort of a tragic romance set amid a dysfunctional, political family in the midst of the Vietnam War. Didion's unique narration style -- where she integrates an almost reporter-like feel as she tells you about the types of things she should have included but didn't, but did, it makes for a really interesting read. ( )
The first few pages were interesting. That's what the first few pages were. The rest of part one was a veritable bore, in spite of the chopped up narrative, never living up to what seemed to be its promise. Most memorable was the misspelling of rijsttafel as rijstaffel. Was it on purpose? Does it mean anything? Does a rice table undermine the grand narrative in ways the rest of the book tries but fails? Part two and three decided to change into something akin to a normal narrative, but that didn't improve the book any. Still, at least my enjoyment of the book oscillated by this point, perhaps even with a vaguely upward trend.
In the end, Democracy is a quick, boring read with a mildly interesting ironic narrative gimmick. The constant false starts and repetitions are presumably meant to undermine the grand narratives of modernity, those of the American democracy in particular. Instead we get a dull soap opera with lifeless characters dressed up in a thin veneer of literary play.
Didion has a wonderful ear for dialogue and this novel, short as it is, manages to touch on some very weighty themes. And, allows us to see ourselves as only others can. ( )
somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars. this is strangely written (both in prose style and in the fact that she inserts herself as author, as didion into the book). for the first 25 or 30 pages that distracted me, then i got over it and found i enjoyed the book much more. i think the title is probably brilliant at all it hints at and all the underlying issues it speaks to. the rest of the book was less so to me, although i enjoyed it. ( )
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
This book is for Dominique and Quintana. It is also for Elsie Giorgi.
Premiers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Das Licht in der Morgendämmerung bei diesen Tests im Pazifik ist etwas, das man gesehen haben muss.
The light at dawn during those Pacific tests was something to see.
Citations
Derniers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Als ich diesen Artikel in London las, waren mir plötzlich Inez und das Büro im Lager ganz gegenwärtig und was für ein Gefühl es ist, in jenen Teil der Welt mit dem dichten Grün und dem durchsichtigen Blau und den Untiefen, wo einst Inseln waren, zu fliegen, doch bis jetzt bin ich noch nicht wieder da gewesen.
When I read this piece in London I had a sudden sense of Inez and of the office and the camp and of how it feels to fly into that part of the world, of the dense greens and translucent blues and the shallows where islands once were, but so far I have not been back.
Inez Victor knows that the major casualty of the political life is memory. But the people around Inez have made careers out of losing track. Her senator husband wants to forget the failure of his last bid for the presidency. Her husband's handler would like the press to forget that Inez's father is a murderer. And, in 1975, the year in which much of this bitterly funny novel is set, America is doing its best to lose track of its one-time client, the lethally hemorrhaging republic of South Vietnam.As conceived by Joan Didion, these personages and events constitute the terminal fallout of democracy, a fallout that also includes fact-finding junkets, senatorial groupies, the international arms market, and the Orwellian newspeak of the political class. Moving deftly from Honolulu to Jakarta, between romance, farce, and tragedy, Democracy is a tour de force from a writer who can dissect an entire society with a single phrase.
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Sort of a tragic romance set amid a dysfunctional, political family in the midst of the Vietnam War. Didion's unique narration style -- where she integrates an almost reporter-like feel as she tells you about the types of things she should have included but didn't, but did, it makes for a really interesting read. (