What is the author's tone in the nonfiction book, The White Album?

The tone of the book reflects the authors perspective, at times personal and emotive, whilst at others clinically correct and impartial. There are two important 'tones' that we can differentiate within "The White Album", and these are: When the writer is talking about herself, her home life and her personal history, and when Didion is referring to celebrities, politicians and events. The latter of these tone's is the more impartial (and we can infer reflects her training as a journalist), whilst the former is the most partial and emotional.

Generally throughout, the writer takes on a tone of detached interest, with a shade of cynicism that is supported by her personal comments about her psychology right at the very start of the book. In such a way Didion discusses the Governor's Mansion in California; encapsulating the fact that she went there as a child because she was friends with a daughter of a previous Governor (and all her own fond feelings towards those memories) whilst seeing the vast hubris of the Mansion's creator and the wry irony that it stood (at the time of writing) as an empty landmark because no other Governor could bring themselves to that level of pride.