Quote by Joan Didion

This work gathers twenty essays written between 1965 and 1967, capturing the disintegration of traditional American social structures during a period of profound cultural transformation. The title essay, which lends its name to the collection, reports from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district at the height of the counterculture movement, documenting the collision between idealism and reality among the young people who had gathered there. Other pieces address topics including John Wayne, Howard Hughes, the wedding industry, and the author's own experiences in New York and California. The collection is recognized for its distinctive prose style—characterized by precise observation, fragmented structure, and unsparing examination of both its subjects and the author's own perspective—and for its early articulation of what would become known as New Journalism, blending reportage with personal reflection and literary technique. more