What is the author's tone in the nonfiction essay collection, Let Me Tell You What I Mean?

Didion’s tone in Let Me Tell You What I Mean varies with each essay, ranging from being snarky – as in parts of “Getting Serenity,” when she criticizes the passivity encouraged by Gamblers Anonymous regarding its members’ views of their gambling issue – to being extremely emotional – as in “The Long-Distance Runner” when she writes of her dear friend’s passing. Thus, Didion’s tone is dependent on her subject matter, further emphasizing something both new and old readers of Didion’s are bound to remark upon in reading this book: her writing, though non-fiction and often journalistic, is simultaneously highly intimate and personal. Each essay examines an experience or a concept but does so through the personalized lens of Didion herself, thus her tone is variable because the author, herself, is highly variable.