As a voracious reader and self-proclaimed Hollywood enthusiast who’s spent countless hours immersed in the lives of literary legends, I can’t help but be thrilled about Lili Anolik’s latest opus, “Didion & Babitz.” Having been enthralled by her previous work on Eve Babitz and Bret Easton Ellis, I eagerly await this exploration into the complex relationship between these two Los Angeles luminaries.
A captivating new book offers a revealing and no-nonsense perspective on the late Joan Didion, similar to how she approached others’ lives. The esteemed author’s illustrious career was significantly shaped by residing in, collaborating with, and chronicling Hollywood. Now, an insightful biographer delves into her romantic past, screenwriting ventures, and numerous other aspects of her life.
Previously, author Lili Anolik, known for her expertise in literary figures, resurfaced Eve Babitz from obscurity, cast fresh perspectives on Bret Easton Ellis, and unveiled aspects of Donna Tartt’s life that caused the acclaimed author of “The Secret History” and “The Goldfinch” to contemplate taking legal action.
Anolik delves into the intricate relationship between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, as their work will be published on Nov. 12th. He explains to The Hollywood Reporter that “to truly grasp Didion’s ‘The White Album’, one must read Babitz’s ‘Slow Days, Fast Company’, and vice versa. They complement each other like yin and yang.
As a passionate admirer, I’m captivated by the fresh take on the dual biography, which delves deeper into the intriguing life of Babitz compared to Anolik’s acclaimed “Hollywood’s Eve.” Over the past ten years, since Anolik first began chronicling the almost forgotten Babitz, there’s been a remarkable resurgence: reprints, reevaluations, and a new wave of fans rediscovering her. To illustrate, consider the recent conversations between Kaia Gerber and Gracie Abrams about the “Eve Babitz revival” they’ve experienced this year. Anolik insightfully notes that Eve is captivating to these young women because she lived boldly. There’s a wild spirit and bravery within her, a readiness to be disregarded, a stubborn refusal to conform.
For many readers, the new book by Anolik offers an honest, unflinching look at Didion’s personal and professional journey, a portrayal largely influenced by her own works which have significantly shaped public opinion about her. Known for her hard-hitting essays, reports, and novels that chronicled cultural shifts from the 1960s to the turn of the century, Didion was initially admired for her detached, psychological and aesthetic perspective. However, towards the end of her life, a wider audience came to appreciate her for the opposite, after publishing a pair of bestselling memoirs that candidly shared her grief over the loss of her husband and daughter.
Anolik perceives the last books of Didion, specifically “The Year of Magical Thinking” and “Blue Nights,” as public relations efforts, where Didion was maintaining her image and indulging in self-sentiment. However, she aligns her own investigation with Didion’s more authentic, earlier work. Anolik admires Didion’s detachment and composure, stating that she aims to view her objectively, removing the urge to portray her as a nurturing figure or symbol of matrimony. In Didion’s finest works, people were drawn to her candidness and straightforwardness. Anolik notes that Joan was often telling the truth about herself, but people were choosing not to heed it.
Joan Didion’s primary source for Anolik’s book was the late Noah Parmentel, a renowned writer known for his sharp wit who passed away this year at 98. He is one of several close associates extensively quoted in the book who have recently passed away. For Anolik, Parmentel served as Didion’s mentor, advocate, and lover – essentially acting as a source of inspiration for the thinly disguised romantic interests in several of Didion’s early novels such as “Run River”, “A Book of Common Prayer”, and most notably, “Play It as It Lays”. As Anolik puts it, discovering Noah Parmentel was like finding the beating heart of Joan. He was her one true romance amidst all her guardedness and opacity. (In “Common Prayer”, Didion imagines the life of a privileged young woman embroiled in violent far-left militancy from the 1960s, born the year after Didion herself experienced a miscarriage with Parmentel: “What if they had their baby?” Anolik ponders this fictional narrative, wondering “What if that baby had grown up to be Patty Hearst?”)
Joan Didion’s relationship with Parmentel is detailed, particularly noting how he facilitated her marriage to John Gregory Dunne, a writer renowned for publishing two influential non-fiction books about the entertainment industry – “The Studio” (1969) and “Monster: Living Off the Big Screen” (1997). As Anolik puts it, Didion was ready to marry and Parmentel wasn’t interested, so he arranged a match with a follower instead. John Dunne, another admirer of Parmentel, became her husband in essence, serving as a companion more than a romantic partner. In this context, Joan marrying John can be seen as her way of marrying Noel.
Apart from her main duties on the duo’s scriptwriting career which they themselves described as subpar (with movies like “Panic at Needle Park” being called ‘arthouse drivel’ and “Up Close and Personal” labeled as ‘total dogshit’), Anolik points out that Didion and Dunne skillfully exploited their literary reputation, similar to the likes of Fitzgerald, Faulkner, O’Hara, and Steinbeck before them. They successfully fooled intellectually and creatively worried Hollywood executives of the time into giving them commissions, according to Anolik. In other words, she believes they were pulling off a con.
One of the collaborators they had during the making of both ‘Needle Park’ and ‘As It Lays’ was Dominick Dunne, who later gained acclaim as a writer, particularly in the field of true-crime stories. Anolik reveals a sorrowful letter that Dominick penned to a trusted friend following the release of ‘As It Lay’, where he recalls that it took him years to understand that one of the characters, a bisexual film producer named BZ, was modeled after himself. “I didn’t realize at that time how I might have appeared to others,” he wrote.
As a gamer, I wouldn’t have given much thought to Dominick’s response. In the 2017 documentary about her, “The Center Will Not Hold,” directed by his son Griffin, she reminisced about her reaction to witnessing one of the most chilling scenes in her body of work: a five-year-old girl under the influence of acid. “Let me tell you, it was priceless,” she said, beaming with joy. Anolik further notes that for someone like Didion who is good at their craft, art is amoral; on a human level, it’s like pulling off a grand heist.
Read More
Sorry. No data so far.
2024-11-12 17:57