Unlike Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and other pioneers of literary journalism, Didion did not become a character in her own stories. A pale wisp of a woman (90 pounds on a 5-foot-2-inch frame), with drab hair and wide-set eyes often hidden behind aviator glasses, she was by her own description “shy to the point of aggravation.” She preferred to cultivate sources on the periphery of stories, “picking up vibrations” as she circled toward the center and back out again. But in her search for truth and meaning in a world where, as she frequently declared, the center “does not hold,” she told stories with icy clarity.
Source: Joan Didion dies; writer chronicled culture with cool detachment – Los Angeles Times
I am nearly destroyed by this news, although it’s not unexpected.
I am very sorry to hear of Didion’s death, although I’m not surprised. She was very frail the last few years.
Yes, Liz, she became so fragile and frail looking that I feared she might blow away. Just a few days ago the random thought flew across my mind “we may not have Joan Didion around much longer.”
She left quite a legacy, but those last years of her life must have been very difficult for her.