Miami: Classics of Reportage - Softcover

Didion, Joan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 186207786X ISBN 13: 9781862077867

Publisher: Granta Books, 2005

Synopsis

Reportage resists easy definition and comes in many forms - travel essay, narrative history, autobiography - but at its finest it reveals hidden truths about people and events that have shaped the world we know. This new series, hailed as 'a wonderful idea' by Don DeLillo, both restores to print and introduces for the first time some of the greatest works of the genre. A surprising portrait of the pastel city, a masterly study of Cuban immigration and exile, and a sly account of vile moments in the Cold War. Miami may be the sunniest place in America but this is Didion's darkest book, in which she explores American efforts to overthrow the Castro regime, Miami's civic corruption, and racist treatment of its large black community.

About this title

Review:

‘Didion captures the exotic nature of Miami... an intriguing read’ -- Metro (London)

‘Miami may be the sunniest place in America but this is Didion’s darkest book... A well-argued, well-researched and highly-influential tome’ -- Eastern Daily Press

‘One of the greatest works in the genre’ -- Brighton Evening Argus

From the Back Cover:

Miami is the American future – more Latin than North. In this volatile city, English is no longer the prevailing language or culture. Many of the inhabitants are loyal to another nation, regard themselves not as immigrants but as exiles, and nurse an abiding sense of having been betrayed by their host. As Miami and the nation's capital grow ever more distant, Didion documents an estrangement that is indicative of the corrosion now afflicting the famous melting pot...

"Joan Didion's Miami is at once an aggressively real city and a legendary domain to which Swift might well have posted Gulliver, or Voltaire Candide. In this book Didion the novelist and Didion the moralist work hand in hand to create a work that combines intense imaginative vision with extraordinary argumentative force. In her exact, rational and appalled portrayal, Miami is the price that America is paying for the corrupted language in which it conducts its political business."
JONATHAN RABAN, 'Observer'

"By the time one has finished this unflinching and acute book, ostensibly journalism but containing all the intrigue of a thriller, one is oneself on edge."
FRANCES SPALDING, 'TES'

"Her book may be seen by many as recording the defeat of the American system."
CAL McCRYSTAL, 'Sunday Times'

"I doubt I'll read prose any more beautiful than this in the next year... the writing and its message scorch like dry ice."
JOHN GILL, 'Time Out'

"Miami the place is, to Didion's mind, the most interesting city in the US. 'Miami' the book is, to my mind, nothing short of brilliant."
LOUISE BERNIKOW, 'Cosmopolitan'

"No one depicts place or passion or dislocation with more accuracy; no one can move us more deeply with the staccato repetition of the crazy facts of personal-political life than Joan Didion."
NEW STATESMAN

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 186207786X
• ISBN 13: 9781862077867
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240