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Content snapshot
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Violence
Barely any
Minimal violence; some disturbing imagery
Language
Some
Adult language in the Hollywood milieu
Sexual Content
Some
Adult sexual content in the Hollywood context
Substance Use
A lot
Pervasive drug use throughout; the Hollywood drug culture is the novel's social world
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
Severe nihilism and existential emptiness; the novel is a clinical portrait of a person who has ceased to engage with meaning, culminating in a disturbing psychological portrait
What this book is about
Joan Didion's 1970 novel is a fragmentary portrait of Maria Wyeth, a former actress and model whose marriage is ending, whose daughter is institutionalized, and who moves through the empty glitter of Hollywood with a terrifying blankness. Didion's prose is stripped to nothing; the novel's power is in its negation. Adult content including a clinical abortion scene, pervasive drug use, and sexual content in the Hollywood milieu. One of the defining portraits of American nihilism.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Extreme nihilism and existential despair throughout
Clinical abortion scene
Pervasive drug use
Reader Verification
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