The book combines aspects of historical writing, journalism, and memoir to present a history of California as well as Didion's own experiences in that state.

The book attempts to understand the differences between California's factual history and its perceived reputation.

"[1] Where I Was From is also in parts a retrospective on Didion's own work, examining how these "confusions" affected her debut novel Run, River.

The disjunction between myth and reality was too large, the basic paradoxes of the California psyche too obvious: mistrust of government while feeding at the troughs of public works and agricultural subsidies; unchecked commercial exploitation of natural resources in the very footsteps of John Muir; the decline of education from a place near the top of the nation to somewhere near that of Mississippi; apathy, increasing rates of crime, and crime's related social problems.

[3]In The New York Times Book Review, novelist and critic Thomas Mallon wrote, "The more penetrating and idiosyncratic moments of 'Where I Was From' are the work of someone who can still be very much herself, someone who is even now, arguably, a great American writer.