LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN

Kimberly Farr's clear, warm voice and intentional pacing--not too fast, not too slow--are the perfect vehicles for this collection of Joan Didion's early journalism. Farr, who often narrates Didion's work, skillfully delivers the author's tone, which is a mix of bemusement and amusement, irony, empathy, and toughness. The book offers a variety of subjects and writerly approaches, blending essays about such topics as the press and Ernest Hemingway with articles that touch on Martha Stewart and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others. There's also a devastating piece about Nancy Reagan when she was a governor's wife. Nicely, Farr lets Didion's incisive writing speak without verbal embellishment, which allows us to experience her unencumbered judgments, be they compassion, bewilderment, or profound irritation. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2021]