Reinventing Oneself in America

Image of the recently deceased writer Joan Didion from below-cited article

"[O]ne of the recurrent themes in all Didion’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, is Americans’ penchant for reinventing themselves, their belief in fresh starts and second acts — a faith, on the one hand, that helped settle this country and fueled the American dream, and yet, on the other, has resulted in rootlessness and anomie, the discarding of personal and public history."

From: Michiko Kakutani, "Didion’s Prophetic Eye on America," The New York Times, Dec. 24, 2021. Ms. Kakutani is a former chief book critic of The Times. She reviewed several works by Joan Didion over the decades and interviewed Ms. Didion. See also.

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JB personal Note: In the not so distant past I had the pleasure of sharing ideas with Open World delegates from Central and Eastern Europe/former USSR on the theme, "Reinveting Oneself in America." As examples of this phenomenon, and hoping to prevent the discussion from becoming too "serious," I mentioned, among many examples, Madonna and Las Vegas ...

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