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After Henry (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)

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After Henry is Joan Didion’s ninth book overall and her fifth of journalism—a word that does not begin to do justice either to her style or to her intelligence. The fact that she writes equally well as a novelist and as a journalist/essayist seems, strangely enough, to have worked to her disadvantage in terms of her reputation and critical reception. It is as if, according to the conventional wisdom, a writer can be one or the other but not truly both. There are, of course, novelists who also write essays and reviews (and poetry): John Updike, for example, who is, however,...

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