After Henry

Incisive essays on Patty Hearst and Reagan, the Central Park jogger and the Santa Ana winds, from the New York Times–bestselling author of South and West.

In these eleven essays covering the national scene from Washington, DC; California; and New York, the acclaimed author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album captures the mood of America and confirms her reputation as one of our sharpest and most trustworthy cultural observers.

Whether dissecting the 1988 presidential campaign, exploring the commercialization of a Hollywood murder, or reporting on the sideshows of foreign wars, Joan Didion proves that she is one of the premier essayists of the twentieth century, an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time.

Highlights include In the Realm of the Fisher King, a portrait of the White House under the stewardship of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, two actors on location; and Girl of the Golden West, a meditation on the Patty Hearst case that draws an unexpected and insightful parallel between the kidnapped heiress and the emigrants who settled California.

Sentimental Journeys is a deeply felt study of New York media coverage of the brutal rape of a white investment banker in Central Park, a notorious crime that exposed the city's racial and class fault lines.

Dedicated to Henry Robbins, Didion's friend and editor from 1966 until his death in 1979, After Henry is an indispensable collection of superior reporting and criticism from a writer on whom we have relied for more than fifty years to get the story straight.