Reading Response 12: Joan Didion

I really enjoyed reading "Goodbye To All That" by Joan Didion. Though more of a personal essay than a longer memoir, her story certainly had a memoir-ish feel, especially since each individual scene she recounts (such as her arrival in New York) all seem to lead up to her inevitable disenchantment with the city. You could really tell Didion had a point she wanted to make, that she was reaching to some message from the very first paragraph of the story. This was not some 'what I did for summer vacation' journal, nor was it a page from a diary. Didion obviously crafted what she experienced into a tale. However, unlike E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake" I really understood what she was trying to explain. Not that White didn't have a point to his narrative, simply that it struck me more as a series of reminisces wrapped around the lake and it's apparent permanence in time. Didion, on the other hand, seemed to really want to make a statement, to talk about being young and optimistic and how that optimism can slowly curdle. It was a sad story, especially as I am the age Didion saw as the time when one is most enamored by the illusions of success. It's scary to think that ones hopes can implode over time. However, Didion, I believe, has managed to make something beautiful out of her sadness, and so maybe her optimism wasn't so misplaced after all.