Democracy

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional
Review: Didion has a unique, powerful style. It reminds me of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 in its irony and suppressed rage, but Didion's prose is just so elegant. "Democracy" is both a romantic and a political novel, with both themes beautifully intertwined. This is an exceptional work. Didion's heroine reminds one of several of her other heroines, coming from a background where she is expected to be an adornment and where the strains of playing that role take a psychological toll. In Democracy, the heroine is psychologically stronger than in some of the other novels, plays on a larger canvas, and is ultimately able to more successfully express her inner strengths and morality. Interestingly, Didion injects herself into the novel as the narrator, and yes, Didion did work briefly at Vogue, and of course was both a reporter and a novelist. My guess is that the conceit of starting to write one novel, and ultimately writing a different one, was probably accurate.

Rating:
Summary: An old-fashioned story with post modern mannerisms
Review: Joan Didion's Democracy is more evidence that she's a writer always worth reading. I have some questions about why she chose to insert "Joan Didion" the report-writer into this story, and why she spends so much time discussing the book she decided not to write (a big epic family Hawaiian novel--but didn't James Michener or someone already do that?), but there is a really good love story here, intense and tight, with lots of gripping details about Hawaii and political campaigning

Rating:
Summary: Democracy: A Dud
Review: Joan Didion's novel "Democracy," is one about American Politics and the Vietnam War, public and private live, the media, and to an extent image management. The story, however, focuses mostly on Inez Victor, the daughter of a powerful Hawaiian congressman. I personally found the book to be quite a bore, as there simply weren't many "jolts" to keep a teenager like me interested. This being said, I did enjoy a couple of things about the novel. The first would be the way that Didion inserts herself into her novels. She puts herself into the novel as a character narrating the events and inserting her own thoughts as if she was there, in the novel. I also enjoyed reading about the mysterious Jack Lovett. I felt that this character was a brilliant creation by Didion. This is simply because, although he is very close to Inez, no one ever knows what he actually does. He is described as an army officer, a man who sets up export credit programs and AID funding, and an aircraft executive. He refers to himself as a "business man." Those were probably the only two things I really enjoyed about this novel. I wouldn't recommend it as a summer reading, but if you choose to defy my wishes, then read it for stylistic analysis of Didion's writing, if anything.