In the new book “We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine,” “New York Times” Film Critic Alissa Wilkinson, examines Didion’s influence through the lens of American mythmaking.
As a young girl Didion was infatuated with John Wayne, his onscreen bravado, was fascinated by her California ancestry, and infamous Donner Party. The mythos that preoccupied her early years continue to influence her work as a magazine writer and film critic in New York.
Alissa Wilkinson is a film critic for the “New York Times” and formally a senior correspondent and critic at Vox.
