A Book of Common Prayer

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977 First edition, first printing. Inscribed by Didion on front free endpaper: "For Steve / With hopes + wishes for a good year - / Joan Didion / July 19 '77". Publisher's black cloth-backed gray paper-covered boards, lettered in gold with red decorative stamping to spine, orange endpapers; in the original yellow and black dust jacket designed by Janet Halverson, with a photo of Didion by John Bryson to the rear panel. Very good book, with some rubbing to spine and boards, some sunning to top edges of boards, and a gentle lean to spine; very good unclipped dust jacket, with a ¾-inch closed tear to top of front panel and a few small closed tears to top of rear panel, lightly nicked upper corners, and some staining to jacket verso, faintly visible on front panel. Overall, a beautiful copy. Didion's third novel, A Book of Common Prayer, centers around the estranged relationship between Charlotte Douglas and her daughter, Marin. Charlotte abandons her failing marriage to go to the fictional country of Boca Grande in Central America with a vague hope of finding her daughter, who is in hiding after engaging in revolutionary acts of domestic terrorism. The story is told from the perspective of Grace Strasser-Mendana, a wealthy and influential widow who lives in Boca Grande. Joyce Carol Oates, in her New York Times review of the book, writes, "Like her narrator, [Didion] has always been an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice, partly eulogistic, partly despairing; always in control.". Inscribed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Dust Jacket Included.