She is an important American. Her prose sounds like analytical poetry. She simultaneously wears different hats: One of an investigative journalist and the other of a classic novelist. She seems to weave the cultural influence of California writ large and New York City on America as a whole. Paraphrasing a line I could relate to about the first time she left New York City: "It's true, you really can stay too long at the Fair."
Leigh and I watched Joan Didion : The Center Will Not Hold and were really inspired.
Lizzie Owens gave me Play it as it Lays for Christmas the year I moved to LA. I never read it. I guess I wasn't ready. I can't wait to now.