How Theory Took Over the World
The French writers of the postwar era argued that the author’s life is irrelevant. Emily Eakin’s lively new book proves them wrong.
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Illustration by The Atlantic* Joan Didion’s Books Should Have Been Enough
The publication of the essayist’s private letters undermines a writer famous for her control.
Illustration by Vivian Dehning. Source: John Bryson / Getty. Why Gossip Is Fatal to Good Writing
A new book compares the authors and frenemies Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, but its fixation on their rivalry obscures the complicated truth.
Illustration by Allison Zaucha / The Atlantic. Sources: Getty; Henry Clarke / Conde Nast /Getty; Mirandi Babitz and the Huntington Library; Lili Anolik. What Shannen Doherty Understood About Brenda Walsh
The late actor turned a soapy character into someone we could never forget: a real and unpredictable girl.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Spelling Television / 90210 Productions / Alamy. What a Famous Writer’s Early Work Can Teach Us About Failure
Marguerite Duras’s second novel, The Easy Life, shows that all writing is practice.
Getty; The Atlantic
