Didion and Babitz

(In 1965, Norman Mailer, watching her at a party, observed, “She’s a perfect advertisement for herself.”)

“But you know so many men,” said Ophelia, “isn’t there even one for you?” “They’re all adjectives,” said [Sophie], “they all make me feel modified;

A brief meditation on Eve and sex—or, rather, on Eve and how Eve talked about sex: On the one hand, freely. She got around and said so. I remember asking her—this was in 2016, at the beginning of the #MeToo movement—if she ever felt she’d been taken advantage of by men. She looked at me, widening her eyes behind her glasses à la Marilyn in How to M

book and I’m trying to get it published. So, I show it to people, and they say, “Gee, this is a fabulous book! Let’s hop into bed. I can get it published for you.” And that wouldn’t be so bad either only everyone is so old and ugly and untalented. It always winds up with me running out of an apartment, clutching my manuscript to my over-developed c

April 14, 1964 Dear Joseph Heller: A very terrible thing happened to me. I was born a girl. It would be O.K. if I were ugly or something or even startlingly unattractive, but as luck would have it, I’m gorgeous, occasionally. Here’s the thing. I wrote this fabulous