In an interview with NPR, Jordan Pavlin, the publisher and executive vice president at Knopf, describes “Notes to John” as “fill[ing] in those blanks” between lesser-known aspects of Didion’s life. Why are we, as the readership, entitled to have those blanks filled in for us? The question is, of course, rhetorical: We are not, and we need to learn how to start respecting that.








