Structure

Joan Didion’s collection of unpublished essays is just that – a collection of unpublished essays. Thus, the book is not only not divided into any discernable structure beyond consisting of one essay after another, but the essays themselves do not move in chronological order and appear not to be thematically linked.

For example, in “Fathers, Sons, and Screaming Eagles” it is clear Didion writes during the time in which the United States had entered the Vietnam war and was clearly losing many soldiers. Yet, in “Everywoman.com,” Didion writes about Martha Stewart, whose popularity soared decades after the Vietnam war. Meanwhile, many essays which come in between those two – such as, for example, the essay “Last Words” which discusses Hemingway’s posthumous publications without giving much indication to the reader at all about when it was written – appear to float in some unknown time, showing glimpses of...