Joan Didion without her style
The writer’s posthumous therapy journal is raw and unvarnished – the most direct book she never wrote.
By
Lola Seaton
Lola Seaton is an associate editor at New Left Review and a contributing writer at the New Statesman.
Latest articles
All Articles
Lauren Oyler’s defence mechanisms
Can the master of the hatchet-job place herself beyond criticism?
By
The paradoxical moods of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark
Released 50 years ago, the singer’s commercial breakthrough is a masterwork of ambivalence.
By
In search of the meaning of sport
A new book shows how sport has shaped British history and society – but cannot explain why it matters…
By
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s thought experiment
The Norwegian novelist doesn’t just want to show his characters’ inner lives, he wants us to take leave of…
By
Jon Fosse and the art of tedium
The Norwegian author’s masterwork Septology finds a mysterious beauty in repetition.
By
Zadie Smith: the reluctant historical novelist
The author’s first period piece, The Fraud, is curiously absent of her usual strengths. Was her heart really in…
By
Making a murderer
Mark O’Connell’s portrait of a notorious Irish killer becomes a study of the desire to turn reality into fiction.
By
Who is criticism for?
Seth Rogen’s protest against bad reviews misunderstands the role of the critic in the fight against mediocrity.
By