Part 1, Life Styles in the Golden Land: John Wayne: A Love Song Summary and Analysis

John Wayne was more than a movie star. John Wayne was a force of nature, a fantasy for women and the kind of man other men aspired to be, and Joan Didion is a fan. Didion can remember going to see a movie of John Wayne's when she was a child. In this movie, Wayne promised to build his woman a house with a white picket fence. Didion always remembered this and even though the men she was attracted to were not the kind to build white picket fences, she always expected them to make the offer just the same. To her, John Wayne was her definition of romance. When he was diagnosed with cancer, Didion, along with his...