Four things stand out for me about this book:

- Joan Didion had amazing access to some of the key people and events of her time, from meeting Linda Kasabian during the Manson murder trials to hanging out with The Doors while they were recording in the studio

- The world as it existed from the 1950s-1970s is a particularly unique period in history, the like of which we shall not see again. How anyone thought life at that time was "normal" is beyond me.

- Joan Didion is an incredibly strong and admirable person. In this book she reveals that she suffers from MS and has had severe recurrent migraines since the age of eight, and yet there is not a trace of self-pity in her outlook.

- Having studied in some depth the flowering of second-wave feminism in and around 1970, Didion's observations about the women's movement are spot on.

Overall, Didion writes with an unsentimental, frankly honest style that gives her work a rare sense of integrity. I am interested to read more. ( )