Books & Fiction: What We Get Wrong About Joan Didion

Plus: living with a visionary, the lessons of the Cultural Revolution, and new poetry from Michael Torres and Linda Gregerson. View in browser | Update your preferences A Critic at Large What We Get Wrong About Joan Didion She’s been canonized for impeccable style, but Didion’s real insights were about what holds society together, or tears it apart. By Nathan Heller Essays & Criticism Personal History Living with a Visionary For more than fifty years, my wife and I shared a world. Then, as Diana’s health declined, her hallucinations became her own reality. By John Matthias Books The Lessons of the Cultural Revolution for Our Current Moment The great question of China’s Maoist experiment now looms over the United States: Why did a powerful society suddenly start destroying itself? By Pankaj Mishra Books Briefly Noted “The Liar’s Dictionary,” “Outlawed,” “Aftershocks,” and “Café Europa Revisited.” Newsletters Sign Up for The New Yorker’s Crossword-Puzzle Newsletter Never miss another New Yorker crossword again. Poetry Poems “Horse in a Gas Mask” “We’re meant to be accustomed / to the bodies / in the mud.” By Linda Gregerson Poems “Portrait of My Brother at Thirteen and 5′2″” “My father has just tossed a glass bottle / into the street.” By Michael Torres The Writer’s Voice The Writer’s Voice: Fiction from the Magazine Lauren Groff Reads “The Wind” The author reads her story from the February 1, 2021, issue of the magazine. More from The New Yorker Cultural Comment How “Promising Young Woman” Refigures the Rape-Revenge Movie The twisty thriller upends a dark genre’s most familiar tropes, telling the story of a long aftermath and the guilt shared by those in power. By Carmen Maria Machado Culture Desk A World-Class Guitar-Maker Picks Through the Ashes Fire undid Todd Clinesmith’s way of life in a few moments. By Paul Elie This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.