We tell ourselves stories : Joan Didion and the American dream machine / Alissa Wilkinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilkinson, Alissa, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Biography.

Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.).

Didion, Joan.

Women authors, American--Biography.

Women authors, American.

Authors, American--Biography.

Authors, American.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xix, 250 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Joan Didion and the American dream machine

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, [2025]

Summary:

Chronicles the iconic writer's journey from journalist to Hollywood screenwriter, examining how her fascination with American mythmaking and cinematic motifs shaped her work and her critique of Hollywood's role in sensationalizing the nation's fears and dreams.

In this riveting 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.

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.

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.

Epilogue: What Didion means.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Beardwood Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

1324092610

9781324092612

OCLC:

1437527317