Major thanks to NetGalley for offering me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts:

I would suggest this book to anyone who enjoys the work of Eve Babitz and is looking for a personal and intimate account of the her life, yet I would suggest Didion fans to proceed with caution.

Oh, Lili. I have an immense amount of affection for Lili Anolik that I've felt from the moment I first encountered her writing via her first Vanity Fair piece about Babitz. Her conversational style generally works for me, and is a refreshing switch from the usual journalistic style that so often removes the journalists themselves from even the one-on-one interview form. I've read all of her books and her VF backlog, and a lot of her other journalistic work, and listened to her podcasts.

What fascinates me is that it feels like in a slightly tilted world where Anolik just got really into like, the Marvel Cinematic Universe or One Direction, that she would just channel her very particular style and energy into being in fandom. And she'd be writing multiple thousand word meta posts about her enthusiasm for world-building and long and very defensive screeds about her RPF characterization choices.

But instead she gets hyperfixated on people like Eve Babitz and the 60s/70s LA scene, and Donna Tartt and the 80s Bennington College scene, and then gets respected publications to pay her money to chase these people down so she can share her obsessions with the class. (Another hyperfixation that made itself immediately apparent the moment I looked into the rest of her VF work after reading the initial Babitz piece: film critic Pauline Kael. Who yes, is referenced multiple times in Didion and Babitz. You got enough content for a Kael book yet, girl?)

This dazzles me. I feel like she is getting away with something that it only ever occurs to a few of us to try, and from the moment I read her work I've been like dude. Hell yeah.

Didion and Babitz is not her best. The chattiness can get grating, and critics here are not wrong about how (arguably unfairly) hard she comes down on Didion. (Yes, I too could write a fair amount of passionate explication for why I make the characterization choices I do in the RPF I write. I could back it up with various points of canon I'm extrapolating from to defend why my fave is the best and other peoples' fave is not as good. Both of us are still at the end of the day writing fanfiction.)

So, anyway, that's my parasocial read on Lili Anolik, a writer who has made a career writing parasocially about other people. If I had any less affection for her writing I would be able to judge this book more fairly, but I cannot bring myself to give anything less than four stars here. I will, as always, be on tenterhooks waiting for what she creates next.

My thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC.

This dual biography of Joan Didion and Eve Babitz was at the top of my must reads for 2024. Informative and entertaining, and based on two of my favorite authors, I was so excited for intense femmes and feminist representation. Unfortunately, this book fell a bit short of my expectations and I liked, but didn’t love it. I found the subject matter fascinating and really enjoy both Didion and Babitz, but felt that this book’s author swayed more onto Babitz’s side to the detriment of Didion, and it ended up feeling less like Didion and Babitz, and more like Didion vs Babitz. I had wanted more sisterhood and less competition and for that reason, the book lost me. I did enjoy learning more about Babitz and wish the author had maybe stuck to that single subject.

I've read so much of Joan Didion's works (and about her), but didn't know much about Eve Babitz. This book makes me want to know more, though there wasn't as much Didion & Babitz interaction as I was expecting. Still, if you're interested in these women & this time period in LA, you'll enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy of this title in exchange for honest feedback

Definitely found myself as fascinated about the discussion about this book (best of lists and pans) as the subjects themselves. I didn't go into this book with a strong opinion on Joan or Eve and so I was so interested in seeing the discourse. For me, I found this account of their relationship as adapted from their letters and interviews with Eve to be fun gossip. I sort of lost interest as Eve began her creative decline but I like the idea of these two very different women being fueled by competition in a way that wasn't about destroying one another.

Thanks to Net Galley and Scribner for the ARC!

A fascinating book that is loosely based on the rivalry and jealousy between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. But really this is a book about Eve Babitz and the obsession by the author about her - including a lot of visits in the past couple of years of Eve's life. There are highly entertaining anecdotes and musings from many in their lives. Although I enjoyed reading it, I felt it was more about Eve than Joan. This rivalry was in the book as a loose thread. As a result, the book feels unbalanced in a way. I did like her asides to us as the reader about what to expect and where the book would go next and even with my feedback, still an enjoyable read overall.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

I was very interested in this book after reading the synopsis but upon reading a few reviews I realized I would likely be unable to fully engage with this book due to the fact I have no prior knowledge of the works of Didion or Babitz. Once I have a little bit of understanding of their works I plan to go back and read this novel. This has nothing to do with the writer/writing themselves, I just need to get a little more under my belt.

I didn't very much enjoy this one despite my high expectations and hopes in the beginning. I love Joan Didion and I love Eve Babitz. For that reason, I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on this scandalous look into their friendship and anti-friendship. When I read the synopsis, I thought it was going to include a bunch of the letters penned between the two but most of it was gossipy discussions with a few of the letters thrown in. The hook in the synopsis of "could you write what you write if you weren't so tiny, Joan?" was given to us very quickly. And as a lover of reality television, scandal, and shows with sharp and scathing reads like RuPaul's Drag Race, I was excited for the story around that line. Once it was given to us, it felt almost underwhelming. I held out hope, though, that if it was given away quickly that there would be more to follow it. But......nothing really did. It felt more like Hollywood's Eve 2.0 than it did an examination of the relationship between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz.

It was okay and I feel like I read it at the wrong time. Not really a book to read during the winter. Would be better, I believe, to read by the pool in the summer with a cold aperol spritz.

an intermediary note as I shove my way through this book. it’s always been pretty clear to me that Lili Anolik is, well, a deeply unserious writer. i fear she is verging on being a stupid and sycophantic writer. this book is written in an incoherent stream of consciousness, in desperate need of editorial intervention. here’s an example: “and though Morrison wasn’t, in her estimation, an artist, he somehow was, in her estimation, an artist.” the book has plenty of other similarly stroke-inducing sentences. perhaps im more offended than warranted bc Didion has always been holy to me. but i think the primary problem with this book’s bad writing is that this is a book about Writers and Writing.

i think this book also symptomatic of a broader issue in the Culture, which is that Babitz & Didion have become floating signifiers of intellectual cool girl-ism, devoid of any meaningful engagement with their work. if you want to find out who Joan Didion was, let her tell you herself.

This was such a fun book of gossip. I enjoyed learning more about the dynamics between two prolific titans of Californian writing. The unique insight the author was able to provide kept me interested despite not knowing who a lot of the players were or why I should care.

Unfortunately, Lili's Anolik clear bias towards Joan Didion really ruined the tone of this book for me :( Had it been a more neutral stance, I would've enjoyed this more. I guess I was just expecting a different perspective when reading this.

I wish there was a suggestion box where you could drop ideas for the next subject for Lili Anolik to tackle in this style, because what she does is fantastic and, well, I’ve got a lot of ideas.

It’s an interesting blend of an academic’s approach to research blended with a sort of oral history, very much akin to her podcast on the same subject and to the fantastic Once Upon A Time at Bennington College.

In terms of subject matter, I was a lot more interested in Bennington than in this, as Babitz and Didion aren’t my favorites and Southern California doesn’t interest me much as a backdrop. But this book is probably a solid piece of evidence that the enjoyment of Anolik’s work isn’t dependent on being a fan of the subject, which is an impressive feat in a piece of nonfiction.

Lili Anolik is a very stylish and self-assured writer (big fan of her magazine work and her podcast "Once Upon a Time at Bennington College") and her new book is no exception. Babitz and Didion are great subjects for her to tackle, and I found her argument that the two of them existed in tension with one another to be quite interesting. The book illuminates that time period in LA quote well via the two roads the women took. Makes me curious to read and reread more by them both, which is a great by-product of a very well-done book!

I love this book so much. Lili Anolik writes about two titans of American art and literature with such a strong voice of her own. So good!!

i had similar feelings to a lot of other creators. this isn’t a true and fair examination into both subjects. anolik greatly idolizes eve, which is fine if you aren’t claiming to unpack the genius of both writers. DNF

I was really excited to read this but I was unable to finish. It is no secret that Anolik is obsessed with Babitz- she admits this herself, which maybe should have served as a warning- but I found her exploration of Didion lacking and narrow minded. I enjoyed Anolik's writing style, but ultimately felt as though her colloquial and at times disconcerting prose was meant to manipulate the reader into believing that one woman (Babitz) was better than the other (Didion) without being *too* obvious about it. I really wanted more from this.

The book starts with a promising ensemble of characters: Joan Didion and her circle, Eve Babitz, Jim Morrison, Steve Martin, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, Michelle Phillips, Stephen Stills, Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun, renowned composer Igor Stravinsky– and the creme de la creme of both Hollywood and the literary world. Author Lili Anolik had already published a biography of Eve Babitz, “Hollywood’s Eve” when– after Babitz passed away– she stumbled onto a treasure trove of her letters. The focus of this book is seeing and reevaluating Joan Didion through Babitz’s words.

I was somewhat familiar with Joan Didion, having read a few of her books and having watched the Griffin Dunne documentary “The Center Will Not Hold.” I had no idea who Eve Babitz was, other than a celebrity associated with Hollywood in the ‘70’s. My expectation was for a good, solid biography of two innovative writers.

I would classify this project as less biography and more gossipy opinion piece. Anolik does not mask her adoration of Babitz and often looks to tarnish Didion. Babitz is free-spirited and inventive. Didion is seen as calculating and distant. A solid biography would lay out facts, maybe quote others' opinions– without the heavy-handed bias. .

Again and again, we are addressed with the cutesy “dear reader” passages.

“In other words, Reader, don’t be a baby.”
“Don’t worry, Reader, we won’t be retracing our steps.”
“Now bear with me, Reader…”

This would be fine if a Rona Barrett style is what you are looking for. I was reminded of Danny Devito’s character in LA Confidential. “Remember dear readers, you heard it here first: off the record, on the QT, and very Hush-Hush.” -- Sid Hudgens, LA Confidential

With the portrait of Didion as uneven as it is, it is hard for me to trust the depiction of Babitz. I recently read “Dorothy Parker in Hollywood’ and wrote “...maybe I should read more Dorothy Parker and less about her.” I should read some Babitz and not rely on a Fanclub account. (Ouch… hurts to write that.) Both of these trailblazing women should get their due.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I DNF'd the book at 60% but I can see the merit in long term Babitz fans reading this. The focus was solely on Babitz with a little bit of Didion sprinkled in. This tainted the reading experience for me because I thought it was going to be more balanced.

The writing style was a little poppy for me as well. I feel like this would have been a very buzzy podcast and would have worked better as a California focused podcast.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an early copy to read.

This cover. Wow. The photo really grabbed me and made we want to check it. I am not big on either Joan Didion or Eve Babitz, by which I mean I haven’t read their work or knew much of their history. I made it through 20% and then just couldn’t continue. It didn’t keep me interested.

Thanks for the advanced reader copy Netgalley and Scribner..