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Vintage Didion

Page 17

by Joan Didion


  Fiction/Literature/0-679-75285-4

  Miami

  It is where Fidel Castro raised money to overthrow Batista and where Castro’s enemies have raised armies to overthrow him, so far without success. It is where the Cuban exile intersects with the cynicism of U.S. foreign policy. It is a city whose skyrocketing murder rate is fueled by the cocaine trade, racial discontent, and an undeclared war on the island ninety miles to the south. Miami is a masterly study of immigration and exile, passion, hypocrisy, and political violence.

  Current Affairs/Literature/0-679-781 80-3

  Political Fictions

  Through the deconstruction of the sound bites and photo ops of three presidential campaigns, one presidential impeachment, and an unforgettable sex scandal, Didion reveals the mechanics of American politics. She tells us the uncomfortable truth about the way we vote, the candidates we vote for, and the people who tell us to vote for them. A disturbing portrait of the American political landscape, and essential reading on democracy.

  Current Affairs/0-375-71 890-7

  Run River

  Joan Didion’s electrifying first novel is a haunting portrait of a marriage whose wrong turns and betrayals are at once absolutely idiosyncratic and a razor-sharp commentary on the history of California.

  Fiction/Literature/0-679-75250-1

  Salvador

  In 1982, Joan Didion traveled to El Salvador at the ghastly height of its civil war. Salvador is an anatomy of that country’s particular brand of terror—its mechanisms, rationales, and relationship to the United States. As she travels from battle fields to body dumps, Didion trains a merciless eye not only on the horror but also on the depredations and evasions of her own country’s foreign policy. Current Affairs/Literature/0-679-751 83-1

  VINTAGE READERS

  Authors available in this series

  Martin Amis

  James Baldwin

  Sandra Cisneros

  Joan Didion

  Richard Ford

  Langston Hughes

  Barry Lopez

  Alice Munro

  Haruki Murakami

  Vladimir Nabokov

  V. S. Naipaul

  Oliver Sacks

  Representing a wide spectrum of some of our most significant modern authors, the Vintage Readers offer an attractive, accessible selection of writing that matters.

  A VINTAGE ORIGINAL, JANUARY 2004

  Copyright © 2004 by The DBA Company

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  “Girl of the Golden West,” “In the Realm of the Fisher King,” “Sentimental Journeys,” “Clinton Agonistes,” and “Fixed Opinions, or The Hinge of History” by Joan Didion, copyright © 1963-2003 by NYREV Inc. Reprinted by permission of The New York Review of Books. “Girl of the Golden West,” “In the Realm of the Fisher King,” and “Sentimental Journeys” were subsequently published in After Henry by Joan Didion (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992; Vintage Books, 1993). “Clinton Agonistes” was subsequently published in Political Fictions by Joan Didion (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., 2001; Vintage Books, 2002). “Fixed Opinions, or The Hinge of History” was subsequently published as Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11 by Joan Didion (New York: New York Review Book, published by The New York Review of Books). “Arrival in San Salvador” and “The Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, 1982” were originally published in Salvador, copyright © 1983 by Joan Didion (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983; Vintage Books, 1994). “Miami One,” “Miami Two,” and “Miami Three” were originally published in Miami, copyright © 1987 by Joan Didion (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987; Vintage Books, 1998).

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Didion, Joan.

  [Essays, Selections]

  Vintage Didion /Joan Didion.

  p. cm.

  Contents: Girl of the golden West—Arrival in San Salvador—The Metropolitan Cathredral in San Salvador, 1982—Miami one—Miami two—Miami three—In the realm of the Fisher King—Sentimental journeys—Clinton agonistes—Fixed opinions.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-54875-7

  I. Title.

  PS3554.I33A6 2004

  814V54—dc21 2003053754

  Book design by Jo Ann Metsch

  www.vintagebooks.com

  v3.0

 

 

 


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