Democracy

By Joan Didion

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean—a gorgeously written, bitterly funny look at the relationship between politics and personal life.

Moving deftly between romance, farce, and tragedy, from 1970s America to Vietnam to Jakarta, Democracy is a tour de force from a writer who can dissect an entire society with a single phrase.

Inez Victor knows that the major casualty of the political life is memory. But the people around Inez have made careers out of losing track. Her senator husband wants to forget the failure of his last bid for the presidency. Her husband's handler would like the press to forget that Inez's father is a murderer. And, in 1975, America is doing its best to lose track of its one-time client, the lethally hemorrhaging republic of South Vietnam.

As conceived by Joan Didion, these personages and events constitute the terminal fallout of democracy, a fallout that also includes fact-finding junkets, senatorial groupies, the international arms market, and the Orwellian newspeak of the political class.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307787378

Joan Didion

Joan Didion is one of America’s most respected writers, her work constituting some of the greatest portraits of modern-day American culture. Over the four decades of her career, she has produced widely-acclaimed journalistic essays, personal essays, novels, non-fiction, memoir and screenplays. Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award in 2005.

Reviews for Democracy

[ronsea-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Huh? 160 pages later. Huh? I love Joan Didion and respect her unique intelligence but this is one that has no bridge from her mind to mine.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Didion has a wonderful ear for dialogue and this novel, short as it is, manages to touch on some very weighty themes. And, allows us to see ourselves as only others can.

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had a college professor who ruined Joan Didion for me -- seriously, she wanted us all to write like Joan Didion, which is so weird when you should be encouraging students to find their own voice. So, I've shied away from her work for decades and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked "Democracy."Sort of a tragic romance set amid a dysfunctional, political family in the midst of the Vietnam War. Didion's unique narration style -- where she integrates an almost reporter-like feel as she tells you about the types of things she should have included but didn't, but did, it makes for a really interesting read.

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this book to be a bit of a political eye-opener. The theme is democracy, viewed from many angles. The timeline is primarily during the Vietnam years and centers on an American family of businessmen and politicians. The novel is more about what Didion sees as the corruptive nature of public service itself. She maintains that ''the assistance effort'' in Vietnam to be ''a specifically commercial enterprise'' and is concerned with ''the whole skein of threads necessary to transfer the phantom business predicated on the perpetuation of the assistance effort.’' I would recommend this book for readers who are interested in the late `60's early `70's era in America.

[shelfy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What stands out to me in Democracy:First, the terse, self-important narrator, who can sound too much like a crime detective forcing herself into the story. But then:Second, how the privileged homes of politicians and businessmen breed a separateness between children and parents, between husband and wife. Members of the families adapt with greed or escapism. Didion has a remarkable ability to capture this in the dialogue.Third, how women, tired of being alienated from others and/or themselves, desert their families, as first suggested early in the novel: "Inez remembered her mother dancing.... You will notice that the daughters in romantic stories always remember their mothers dancing, or about to leave for the dance: these dance-bound mothers materialize in the darkened nursery...in a cloud of perfume, a burst of light off a diamond hair clip. They glance in the mirror. They smile. They do not linger, for this is one of those moments in which the interests of mothers are seen to diverge sharply from the wishers of daughters. These mothers get on with it. These mothers lean for a kiss and leave for the dance" (pp. 21-22).Fourth, the most compelling thing about this novel, for me, was the elusive protagonists. I woke up each morning wondering if I would grow any closer to them. As the narrator describes it: "I can remember a moment in which Harry Victor seemed to present himself precisely as he was and I can remember a moment in which Dwight Christian seemed to present himself precisely as he was and I can remember such moments about most people I have known, so ingrained by now is the impulse to define the personality, show the character, but I have no memory of any one moment in which either Inez Victor of Jack Lovett seemed to spring out, defined. They were equally evanescent, in some way emotionally invisible; unattached, way to the point of opacity, and finally elusive. They seemed not to belong anywhere at all, except, oddly, together." (pp. 83-84)Overall, I would recommend Democracy to people I suspect would find Didion's elusive characters intriguing, her snarky dialogue telling, her objective storytelling unique, and her scope--both emotional and geographic--compelling.

[ndolson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I honestly love this book. For those of you who are not fans of Didion's style of writing this book is not for you. But for those who are fans this one is a must read.