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Joan Didion

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Author

The Resume

    (December 5, 1934-December 23, 2021)
    Born in Sacramento, California
    American author
    Novels include 'Run, River,' 'Play It as It Lays' and 'Democracy'
    Nonfiction books include 'Salvador,' 'The Year of Magical Thinking' and 'Political Fictions'
    Screenplays include 'Panic in Needle Park,' 'A Star is Born,' and 'Up Close & Personal'
    Won the National Book Award for 'The Year of Magical Thinking' (2005)
    Has also won awards from the National Book Foundation and the Writers Guild of America
    BA from Berkeley in English
    Sister-in-law of writer Dominick Dunne and aunt of acting siblings Griffin and Dominique Dunne

Why she might be annoying:

    She's a snob, frequently looking down on the subjects of her books.
    Her writing is heavily overpadded but she and critics describe it as lean for some reason.
    She steals her book titles, i.e. 'A Book of Common Prayer' and 'The White Album.'
    Some of her sentences make you go 'Huh?' like 'What makes Iago evil? Some people ask, I never ask.' and 'There is poverty here, but it is obdurately indistinguishable from comfort.' Also she once referred to a couch as a 'vast Stalinist couch.'
    Her book 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' is an example of 'New Journalism' -- writing journalism in the form of fiction.
    She named her daughter Quintana Roo Dunne Michael.
    She smokes.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She once had a nervous breakdown.
    She has been a recluse since her husband and only child died within two years of each other (2003 - 2005).
    She suffers from vertigo.
    She's become very thin and frail in her old age.
    She has cited Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, George Eliot and the Bronte sisters as influences.
    She got her first job with Vogue when she won a college essay contest sponsored by the magazine.
    She and her family had to move around a lot when she was a child due to her father's service in WWII and later work as a defense contractor, accentuating her innate introversion.

Credit: tom_jeffords


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 13 Votes: 23.08% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 134 Votes: 41.04% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 21 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 47 Votes: 65.96% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 76.92% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 49 Votes: 69.39% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying