Joan Didion's brutal masterpiece, recognized since its first publication in 1968 as an unparalleled account of the state of America during the upheavals of the sixties. We forget far too quickly the things we thought we could never forget. We forget loves and betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were. In her nonfiction work, Joan Didion not only describes the respective subjects—her younger self, who loves and leaves New York, the murderous housewife, the little girl who follows the rock band, the millionaire holed up in his mansion—but also offers a broader perspective on the world that is both terrifying and tender, dark and uniquely her own.