In We Tell Ourselves Stories , Alissa Wilkinson offers a penetrating and original exploration of Joan Didion’s complex entanglement with Hollywood and the broader machinery of American myth-making. Rather than providing a conventional biography, Wilkinson presents a focused, critical study that repositions Didion as a central figure in the cultural feedback loop between literature, film, and national identity. Through this lens, the book invites readers to reconsider Didion not just as a literary stylist but as a cultural theorist deeply engaged with the stories that define American life. Wilkinson, drawing on her experience as a film critic and scholar, investigates how Didion's proximity to Hollywood—both geographic and professional—shaped her worldview and narrative technique. Didion’s relationship with Hollywood was not just one of professional involvement but of profound symbolic significance. Early in life, she was drawn to the American mythos epitomized by figures like John ...