So i read this yesterday and it was marvellous. Didion's prose is basically unimpeachable. I counted only one clunking sentence. Everything else was gymnastic and surgical. Joan's got style, of course, you know that even if you've never read her before. But i think it reaches a particular apex here. You get the didion experience, no discounts, no lites. I like the novel's usage of faggot.

The characters are beautiful. Joan understood the psychology of californians, particularly los angelenos, in the same way a cinematographer grasps a camera: it's a supple, subtle presence, one you know better really than yourself. This is arguably most deftly done with helene, who, despite her limited appearances, outshines maria on every page. Helene is supposed to be the platonic antithesis to maria, the more successful older woman, but didion anticipates and subverts this. We are made keenly aware of maria's myopia towards herself, and by extension, helene. Even after a threesome with helene, maria is no closer to "getting" why helene is happier and more successful, even after she tries to commit suicide with helene's husband, bz. Helene frustrates maria because maria can only see so much. The rest is out of the water, so to speak, and whatever is out of the water for a fish cannot exist. I think that is the novel's message, if such a thing you want to ascribe.

The driving scenes are the best part. There is a recurring motif dreamless sleep after successful high speed lane changes. I think this is supposed to represent orgasm. After the orgasm maria is able to sleep. Accessing oblivion is the one thing maria wants -- hence the suicide attempts, both half-hearted and full-hearted. I think that the suicidality is unrelated to maria's abortion. Maria's depression starts with kate's hospitalisation, and thus, the palliative care of maria's career and marriage. The abortion really is a symbol of maria's life, the strange beginning and then the sad end. She doesn't want it to end, just the same as she doesn't want to commit suicide, but she recognises that continuation is untenable. So, play it as it lays.

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