The White Album is a collection of essays by Joan Didion. The book was published in 1979, but most of the essays previously appeared independently in prominent magazines like Esquire and Life. The essays center on California life and popular culture. Didion was born in California and lived a large part of life on the West Coast, so she was acutely familiar with its nuances and narratives. As a prolific writer of multiple kinds of media—books, screenplays, and magazine articles—Didion was keenly aware of how entertainment industries and divergent cultures impact American identity and reality. The essays are an example of New Journalism—a literary movement that turns the journalist into a personality and the article into a story.

Didion was known for her chic, minimalist style, and in 2015, at 80, she starred in an ad campaign for the fashion brand Celine. Seven years later, she died. Aside from a captivating image, she left an array of acclaimed books, including the earlier essay collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), the novel Play It as It Lays (1970), and a memoir about her husband’s death, The Year of Magical Thinking (2005).

This guide uses the 2017 Open Road eBook edition of The White Album.

Content Warning: The source text contains a discussion of sexual assault.

Summary

Didion organizes the essays into five parts. The first, “The White Album,” which contains one essay of the same name (also the book’s title) alludes to the 1968 self-titled album by The Beatles, known as The White Album because the famed rock band used an all-white cover. Like the album’s discordant songs, the tone of Didion’s essay is edgy, jarring. In addition, some held that the album inspired the infamous Charles Manson and his followers to kill, and Didion’s essay describes her relationship with Manson follower Linda Kasabian, who testified against Manson in the court case about the murder of actress Sharon Tate. Didion begins with a now-famous declaration: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live” (8). She’s suspicious about stories and meanings; she favors impressions or images. She shares her observations on Kasabian, the Black Panthers, the rock group The Doors, and two murderous brothers. Additionally, she includes literary sketches of herself, describing how she rents a 28-room house in Hollywood, where she engages with celebrities and threatening strangers, and delving into her medical history and how she packs for trips.

In the second part, “California Republic,” Didion focuses on the individuals, institutions, and places that exemplify her idea of California. They include Protestant bishop James Pike, who published books, hosted a TV show, and remodeled a church using images of famous physicist Albert Einstein and the first Black Supreme Court member, Thurgood Marshall; Pentecostal preacher Elder Robert J. Theobold, who hears messages from God; and other people under various influences—bikers, people with gambling addictions, and an aspiring actress. She watches a TV man film Nancy Reagan, the wife of former California governor Ronald Reagan (who later served as a US president), and describes a Hollywood party where people view social problems as plots needing a hopeful resolution. In “Holy Water,” Didion visits the California State Water Project’s control center and shows how water moves throughout the state. In “Bureaucrats,” she examines the faulty logic behind the California Department of Transportation’s designating Diamond Lanes to encourage the use of buses and carpools on state highways. Likewise, California politics and controversies connect to essays on two controversial buildings: the governor’s residence built by Reagan and a $17 million museum to house the art and items of oil baron J. Paul Getty.

In the third set of essays, “Women,” Didion critiques the feminist movement—and prominent feminists—for arguing that women are invariably oppressed. She admits that sexist norms harm some women but notes that other women get along fine and holds that the outsized focus on oppression characterizes women as children instead of adults. Didion admires the tenacity of Doris Lessing’s fiction and how the artist Georgia O’Keeffe is unperturbed by what men think.

The fourth part, “Sojourns” details the places where Didion stays. To avoid divorce, Didion, her husband, and her daughter spend time in Honolulu. Later, she returns to Hawaii, visiting a graveyard for soldiers killed in the Vietnam War and documenting Schofield Barracks, an army base that James Jones featured in his World War II-era novel From Here to Eternity (1951). The next essay focuses on Hollywood, California: Didion examines the economics and power dynamics of the movie business. “In Bed” describes her thoughts about the migraines that regularly confine her to bed. “On the Road” spotlights the peculiar stress of a book tour with her 11-year-old daughter. She then explores shopping malls across the US. Next, Didion spends time in Bogotá, Columbia, where she finds a shopping mall, American movies, political intrigue, and an oppressive salt mine. The last essay in the section returns to the topic of water—Didion visits the Hoover Dam and contemplates its otherworldly magnetism.

In the book’s fifth part, “On the Morning After the Sixties,” Didion compares her generation’s distrust of activism and moral clarity with the revolutionary, righteous spirit of the 1960s. The concluding essay, “Quiet Days in Malibu,” begins calmly. Didion spends time with lifeguards and an orchid breeder, and she describes her communal Malibu neighborhood near a highway. However, the essay and book end dramatically, as a fire destroys the orchids and almost wipes out Didion’s former home.