“But it’s all the same in the end.” This novel left me with a lot to say about it and speechless at the same time. The ending is told to us in the beginning, and it isn’t a shock or surprise, but in my opinion is still left for us to decide. Almost nothing is spelled out for you in this novel and the majority of characters range from pathetically sad to someone you would kick out of your house for getting too drunk at a Christmas party. However, something that is spelled out to us is that who we know a person to be is often the version we choose to know that makes us feel better about things. Were the characters as terrible as the narrator shows us they were or is this way of making herself feel better that once she goes all that will be left of her is the version that other choose they knew? One thing I always love about reading Didion is that her novels seem to run. They’re exhilarating start to finish even with the depressing subject matter. She also never seems to underestimate the intelligence of her readers and trusts us to understand what she’s trying to say instead of telling us what she’s trying to say. The one thing I wish we got to see was more of Marin and how she viewed the world, as she was a compelling character to me, but I understand why we could not see more of her and her own motives from the point of views of who was telling us the story.