Shae Eckles’s Reviews > Didion and Babitz > Status Update

Slouching towards the fucking finish line

Pausing one last time before I finish this to say how delusional, biased, and black-and-white Anolik is in her research. Jesus Christ. This is so incredibly bad and does disservice to both of these women (and everyone else mentioned within this recount)

This book is so hypocritical and unnecessarily mean but can’t bring myself to DNF yet.

So bad that it almost turns me off from Babitz. Which is funny, given this is the exact opposite effect Anolik wants of her audience. Demonizes Didion for her relationships with men and her body but then discusses Eve on those same factors?? I genuinely do NOT understand. Mean for the sake of being mean. Misogynistic tbh

Claiming that Didion only got traction as a writer because of her ex boyfriend and her husband’s influence?? Oh my god. So incredibly rude and wrong. This entire book feels incredibly male-centered rather than focusing on an interesting literally scene between this two female LA writers. If someone tried to say my career was due to the men in my life, I think I’d kill them.

This feels like a Didion hit piece

Guys this book is such Didion-haterade I just don’t think I can take this seriously and I JUST picked this back up. It’s like every other sentence istg

Picking this back up off of a DNF…let’s see if I can do it this time

Already conflicted about this