Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

read in january. a true masterpiece i'd been seeking for a couple years since reading this passage for my architecture thesis:

'I sat next to one such wedding party in a Strip restaurant last time I was in Las Vegas. The marriage had just taken place; the pride still wore her dress, the mother her corsage. A bored waiter poured out a few swallows of pink champagne ("on the house") for everyone but the bride, who was too young to be served. "You'll need something with more kick than that," the bride's father said with heavy jocularity to his new son-in-law; the ritul jokes about the wedding night had a certain Panglossian character, since the bride was clearly several months `regnant. Another round of pink champagne, this time not on the house, and the bride began to cry, "It was just as nice," she sobbed, "as I hoped and dreamed it would be."' - from Marrying Absurd