New YorkerestThe essential reads from every New Yorker issue

Joan Didion

Read more on The New Yorker →

5 picks · 1988–1998

Featured Picks

Last Words
life and letters ·

Joan Didion on the words he wrote—and didn’t.

Trouble in Lakewood
letter from california ·

Joan Didion on Lakewood, California, a once idyllic postwar town that fell under the sway of a teen-age gang.

Fire Season in Los Angeles
letter from los angeles ·

The author visits a downtown courtroom and Los Angeles County Fire Department headquarters during the hottest and driest time of the year for the desert city.

Strangers in Hollywood
letter from los angeles ·

The author on her experience of California earthquakes, the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, and the question of houses in the city—and what they are worth.