A brilliant debut Memoir about a young writer--struggling with depression, family issues, and addiction--and his life-changing decade working for Joan Didion As an aspiring novelist in his early twenties, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer whose identity was kept confidential.
It is a love letter to a cultural icon--and a moving testament to the relationships that sustain us in the eternal pursuit of a life worth living..
In hypnotic prose that pulses with life and longing, The Uptown Local explores the fault lines of class, family, loss, and creativity.
And meanwhile, the forces of addiction and depression loomed large.
He struggled day after day to write the novel that would validate him as a real writer.
He spent his weekends at a federal prison, visiting his father as he served time for fraud.
He reeled from the Death of a close friend.
But secretly, Cory was spiraling.
Together they recited poetry in the mornings, dined with Supreme Court justices, attended art openings, smoked a single cigarette before bed.
In the nine years that followed, Cory shared Joan\'s rarefied world, transformed not only by her blazing intellect but by her generous friendship and mentorship.
Suddenly, he found himself the personal assistant to a titan of literature: Joan Didion.
Since the tumultuous days of childhood, Cory had sought refuge from the rougher parts of life in the pages of books.
A brilliant debut Memoir about a young writer--struggling with depression, family issues, and addiction--and his life-changing decade working for Joan Didion As an aspiring novelist in his early twenties, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer whose identity was kept confidential
