Janet Malcolm and Joan Didion: Two Anti-Enthusiasts Who Reinvented Nonfiction

A literary essay published in artpress2 n°27, titled "Villa Gillet : Amérique, mode d'emploi," examines the contrasting approaches of Joan Didion and Janet Malcolm, two female writers who redefined American nonfiction in the 1960s and 1970s. The author, reflecting on his own upbringing in a Brooklyn housing project, credits both writers as his literary godmothers. Didion, a Californian with a fragile persona, built her work from intimate feelings outward, using precise language to bridge personal and public spheres. Malcolm, a New York-based analyst of Freudian circles, viewed journalism as a duplicitous game, exposing the corruptions in relationships between writers and subjects. While both shared emotional intrepidity, the author ultimately prefers Didion for her lack of programmatic theory, though he acknowledges Malcolm's essential insights into the parasitic nature of nonfiction writing. The essay argues that their work remains the gold standard of a uniquely American literary genre.