Democracy

Nora D.S. Robins is co-ordinator of Internal Collections at the
University of Calgary Libraries.

Joan Didion’s fourth novel is the powerful story of an American family, the Christians of Hawaii, and their marriages, infidelities, business endeavors, and political aspirations. At the center is Inez Christian Victor, child of privilege, wife of a Democratic Senator who aspires to the Oval Office, mother of two disaffected children. In particular, it is the story of her long, intermittent love affair with Jack Lovatt, a freelance CIA agent.

The story moves from Honolulu to New York to Hong Kong and finally reaches its climax in 1975 with the American evacuation of Saigon. The main character, Inez, is a memorable heroine — reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy as portrayed in the “dailies” — for whom a much publicized life has become a series of “photo opportunities.”

The book begins slowly but grows steadily more intriguing. There is a heavy reliance on brief, finely honed flashbacks (“helpful glimpses” as the book’s undisguised narrator, Joan Didion, explains). The autorial intrusions take some getting used to as they pull the reader away from the story. This reviewer, for one, found Didion’s throat clearing quite irritating. However, one can find consolation in an absorbing and complex plot full of sardonic one-liners and brittle dialogue.

For Didion the title, Democracy, is rich in irony, for it demonstrates how imperfectly democracy actually works as opposed to how it should work and how many people think it does work.