When journalist Lily Anolik finds an unsent letter detailing Eve Babitz’s evisceration of Joan Didion, she, once again, finds herself powerless to Eve’s call. Having aided the renaissance of Eve’s writing with her Vanity Fair profile in 2014, and chronicled her life in ‘Hollywood’s Eve’, Anolik was, she thought, ready to move on to new subjects. But this letter changed everything. Anolik declared: “I’d tell Eve’s story again. Except this time, I’d tell it differently. Better. Because… I’d be telling Joan’s story, too.” ‘Eve & Babitz’ transports you back to 1970s L.A. to tell the story of how these two incredible women went from friends to foes; how Didion became an icon of American literature and Babitz a cult classic. Of course, Anolik’s interpretation of events is not the only one, and like Eve herself she does rely on gossip to construct her narrative. Nevertheless, it’s a fascinating read for fans of either writer. MG

Published by Atlantic