We Tell Ourselves Stories
Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine
Most Anticipated Books of 2025 • Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, W Magazine, The Millions Joan Didion opened The White Album (1979) with what would become one of the most iconic lines in American literature: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Today, this phrase is deployed inspirationally, printed on T-shirts and posters, used as a battle cry for artists and writers. In truth, Didion was describing something much less rosy: our human tendency to manufacture delusions that might ward away our anxieties when society seems to spin off its axis. Nowhere…
Best Books of Spring 2025 • Oprah Daily, Town & Country
“Sharp, elegant and eye-opening . . . a crucial toolbox for understanding both Joan Didion and Hollywood.” —Emily Nussbaum
$39.99
March 11, 2025Alissa Wilkinson is a film critic at the New York Times and was formerly a senior correspondent and critic at Vox. Her previous book, Salty: Lessons on Eating, Drinking, and Living from Revolutionary Women, was published in 2022. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
