South and West by Joan Didion

The first of the two pieces collected here is a draft of an essay that traces a road trip Didion took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, through the south in 1970. The second is a series of “California Notes” which she recorded for an assignment for Rolling Stone (that she never completed) on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. She later expanded them to include her thoughts about San Francisco, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento, and published it as part of her acclaimed 2003 book, Where I Was From. If you’re a Didion fanatic, as I am, you’ll be gobbling this up. - Rico