I feel like every stereotypical depiction of the Southern United States that I, a native Californian descended from colonizers, was raised on was represented in this book. A little curious, because when you leave Los Angeles, San Francisco or any of the other major California cities, you're not exactly traversing through diverse, industrialized environments. I'm specifically looking at the farmlands of Sacramento, where Didion hails from. Nevertheless, she received the South as another world entirely.

Perhaps I am reading this book with 2024 hindsight. Perhaps Didion genuinely believed, as I was taught, that we out West were spared the racism narrative. News flash, we weren't.

Ultimately I do wonder, was there a way to have searched for the shared humanity inherent in both the Southern and Western experiences instead of othering the others and ending up sitting on all this hate in the 21st century?

All of that being said, I felt relieved to embark on that return flight with her. As always, the writing was sublime and storytelling was superb.