A bit of arithmetic says that Joan Didion wrote this piece at 26 or 27. It may be the cantankerousness that sets in with age, but when you are eligible for Soci

A bit of arithmetic says that Joan Didion wrote this piece at 26 or 27. It may be the cantankerousness that sets in with age, but when you are eligible for Social Security it becomes odd to read the young writing such things. She certainly had a voice, first to last. (Well, last of what I read, which was a while ago.) It carries you along without giving you time to wonder whether the examples weren't a bit arbitrarily chosen, whether one's grandparents' generation didn't have as many bunglers as one's own, or people not only lacking in self respect but unwilling to acknowledge its claims. It is amusing to find the first sentence quoting Gerontion.