Looking for Joan Didion

Norman Mailer’s Opposite

Abstract

J. Michael Lennon reflects on his long-standing admiration for both Joan Didion and Norman Mailer, positioning them as stylistic and temperamental counterpoints within late twentieth-century American literature. Drawing on personal recollection, literary history, and a moment of missed intimacy at Mailer’s 2008 memorial service, Lennon explores how Didion’s restraint, precision, and ironic detachment contrast with Mailer’s flamboyant self-dramatization and performative presence. The essay situates Slouching Toward Bethlehem and The Armies of the Night as parallel yet divergent responses to national crisis, united by a rejection of dispassionate objectivity and a shared inheritance from American Romanticism and Hemingway. Through anecdote and close attention to Didion’s celebrated review of The Executioner’s Song, Lennon illuminates the productive tension between two radically different literary sensibilities and reflects on the limits of access, admiration, and authorial intimacy. The piece ultimately affirms the enduring value of subjective engagement in American literary nonfiction while acknowledging the silences that surround even its most visible practitioners.