A Book of Common Prayer.

DIDION, Joan.

Item Number: 120567

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977.

First edition of Didion’s fourth book. Octavo, original half cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, “For Bob Thomas with admiration- Joan Didion December 15 ’77.” The recipient, Bob Thomas was an American Hollywood film industry biographer and reporter who worked for the Associated Press from 1944. As of 2014, he was twice listed in the Guinness World Records, for the longest career as a reporter, and for the most consecutive Academy Awards shows covered by an entertainment reporter. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Janet Halverson.

Writing with the telegraphic swiftness and microscopic sensitivity that have made her one of our most distinguished journalists, Joan Didion creates a shimmering novel of innocence and evil. A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in the derelict Central American nation of Boca Grande. Grace Strasser-Mendana controls much of the country's wealth and knows virtually all of its secrets; Charlotte Douglas knows far too little. "Immaculate of history, innocent of politics," she has come to Boca Grande vaguely and vainly hoping to be reunited with her fugitive daughter. As imagined by Didion, her fate is at once utterly particular and fearfully emblematic of an age of conscienceless authority and unfathomable violence. "An articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice" (Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book Review).