Sparkling ... Those in the market for a detached and measured work of journalism might not fully appreciate this delightful and uncategorizable book, though it does contain a great deal of careful reporting. It is both enormously informative and openly prurient, deliciously greedy for the details of Babitz’s and Didion’s private lives. At times, it is even gossipy ... One of my favorite books of the year, and Babitz, an avid champion of gossip, would no doubt have approved of its tenor.
Anolik’s zealous bias...gibes magically with the outsize, lesser-known Babitz, but doesn’t always translate as well to the staid, lionized Didion ... Acres of familiar ground are the one shortcoming of Didion & Babitz. While the new book does offer plenty of original insight into Babitz’s career and relationship with Didion, it’s heavily skewed toward the name after the ampersand.
Didion remains a slippery figure. In fact, the author dubiously claims that the only way to see Didion is through the 'glass' of Babitz ... The author is unafraid of sounding like a besotted teenager ... Throughout the book Anolik’s tone is self-conscious and conspiratorial, which at first feels like gossipy fun, as if she’s writing beyond the male gaze, the book both taking itself very seriously and not seriously at all. But the podcast-speak...loses its charm quickly ... Anolik doesn’t need such stylistic indulgences to bring the reader in; she is a thorough reporter with an ear for humorous detail ... It’s a promise that never pays off. Didion feels like a supporting character in the book and their rivalry feels entirely one-sided. You end up wondering if Didion thought about Babitz much at all.
Dazzling and provocative ... Babitz refuses to leave the stage. Didion may be the more esteemed figure, but she’s not the one who captures our imaginations in Anolik’s telling ... In this character study, Didion is more of an afterthought.
Dishy ... There’s something endearing about the power of Anolik’s love for the author, but something dispiritingly deflating about this latest homage to her. Babitz’s work, for all its frisson and humor, also feels particular, alive. Anolik, by contrast, gets trapped on the flat surfaces. As much as the book seems earnestly set on redefining both of these women, the truth it captures more than any other is how quickly wit can slip into caricature, fun and fizzy gossip into cruelty.
Anolik makes a convincing case for Babitz’s literary genius and sets up an interesting contrast between the two women— one loose, libidinous and joyfully debauched; the other shy, cerebral and tightly controlled ... But don’t expect the calm, organized, even-handed approach of a literary critic or biographer. In the breathless, gossipy style of the tabloids, and with frequent, winking asides to the “Reader,” Anolik dishes dirt on all the major and minor players in their haute bohemian circle, especially Didion and Dunne.
Reduces the two writers not so much to brands as to types, two girls fat and thin ... Anolik needs to commit to the binary bit to justify the book’s existence ... At her best, Anolik channels the collagist sensibility that Babitz took from the visual to the verbal ... Even I—someone who, like Anolik, is on 'Team Babitz'—longed for taut, spare, cold, clear, clean sentences.
Absorbing albeit frustrating ... The book is meticulously referenced, but occasionally sags with the weight of its contents. Anolik’s rationale for this book is new archival material...but truthfully it seems she would take any excuse to write at length (again) about her idol ... Anolik delivers a much-needed antidote to Didion delirium. If you can wade through the endless Babitz bits, that is.
Reading Didion & Babitz is a bit like being held hostage. At the outset, I very much wanted what it appears to offer ... After a while, though, it came to me that these women had not, after all, engaged in much of a correspondence ... I wanted to bust right out of the airless room in which I’d been kept for 190-odd pages, listening to Anolik’s annoying, digressive, smart-alecky prose ... Neither of them would have liked this book.
It is hard not to admire the gumption. Anolik swings big ... I remain sceptical about this two-halves theory ... This is vivid, entertaining stuff and often gallops along as if it’s been up all night at one of Didion and Dunne’s notorious Franklin Avenue gatherings, but it is, perhaps, more provocative than entirely convincing.
Compelling ... Lili Anolik’s portrayal leans heavily toward Babitz’s emotional depth, framing the narrative through her unfiltered lens ... Anolik’s insights will resonate long after you turn the last page, revealing two sides to Hollywood in the contrasting lives and work of two very talented writers.
Anolik remains in love with Babitz throughout; and uses Didion as a foil to show off Babitz’s superiority. She relishes her sassiness, as well as her melancholy insightfulness. She’s seduced by the West Coast glitter Babitz sprinkles over her scrumptious prose. But we never really figure out why Babitz takes up so much space in Anolik’s mind. Perhaps that is the nature of obsession; it’s incomprehensible. We don’t understand the genesis of her adulation for Babitz or its ability to remain undiminished over so much time. But perhaps that’s the point.
