Review of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
(In 3 weeks I read seven books in preparation to write the Analysis of the Competition section for the book proposal for my co-authored nonfiction book Never Stop Dancing. The seven books are A Grief Observed, Two Kisses for Maddy, The Year of Magical Thinking, About Alice, A Widow's Story, Tuesdays with Morrie, and When Bad Things Happen to Good People. I'll write a review for each book. Death and grief are common, but we experience each uniquely.)
Joan Didion writes her way through the first year after her husband's death and only child's serious illness. Her style is sparse and stark. I'd say clinical, too, almost cold, as if she's describing someone else's experiences, as though she's writing through/with a flat affect. This is the first time I've read anything by Didion, so I'm not sure if this is how she expresses herself now, as an older writer, or if this is just her style. Either way, be aware that this is what you'll be getting if you decide to read this book.
Be prepared, too, for a lot of name- and place-dropping along the way. At first I found it irritating, like plenty of other reviewers, but then I thought perhaps that this is simply part of her grieving process, how she's working through the reality of losing her husband so suddenly. (One minute she was talking to him, then she turned around and he was face down on the dining room table.) She's recalling the pleasant times she's had in her life with her husband to remember him. Often, though, it feels as if the descriptions are turning into an autopsy, like she's picking through the memories to convince herself, to convince her readers, that these things actually did happen. It's eerie.
Layered over the experience of losing her husband she was dealing with her only daughter who was battling a serious illness and nearly died. Which, she did, later, during the publication process of The Year of Magical Thinking, but Didion decided to leave the text unrevised to include that information. So, as she's musing over the loss of her husband there are interspersed sections on her dealing with the present realities of her very sick (adult) child.
It's true that we each grieve and recover in our own way; there is no "right" or "wrong" way because what a spouse meant and means to the surviving spouse is for the survivor to say. I learned that the hard way during the year-long series of interviews I conducted with my good friend John Robinette for our book Never Stop Dancing (working title). In The Year of Magical Thinking, though, Didion is a bit too much the "cool customer"--her own term--for my taste, but I can still recommend it for its clear look into someone's personal account of the grieving process.
It's okay
2/5 Goodreads
3/5 Amazon
Joan Didion writes her way through the first year after her husband's death and only child's serious illness. Her style is sparse and stark. I'd say clinical, too, almost cold, as if she's describing someone else's experiences, as though she's writing through/with a flat affect. This is the first time I've read anything by Didion, so I'm not sure if this is how she expresses herself now, as an older writer, or if this is just her style. Either way, be aware that this is what you'll be getting if you decide to read this book.
Be prepared, too, for a lot of name- and place-dropping along the way. At first I found it irritating, like plenty of other reviewers, but then I thought perhaps that this is simply part of her grieving process, how she's working through the reality of losing her husband so suddenly. (One minute she was talking to him, then she turned around and he was face down on the dining room table.) She's recalling the pleasant times she's had in her life with her husband to remember him. Often, though, it feels as if the descriptions are turning into an autopsy, like she's picking through the memories to convince herself, to convince her readers, that these things actually did happen. It's eerie.
Layered over the experience of losing her husband she was dealing with her only daughter who was battling a serious illness and nearly died. Which, she did, later, during the publication process of The Year of Magical Thinking, but Didion decided to leave the text unrevised to include that information. So, as she's musing over the loss of her husband there are interspersed sections on her dealing with the present realities of her very sick (adult) child.
It's true that we each grieve and recover in our own way; there is no "right" or "wrong" way because what a spouse meant and means to the surviving spouse is for the survivor to say. I learned that the hard way during the year-long series of interviews I conducted with my good friend John Robinette for our book Never Stop Dancing (working title). In The Year of Magical Thinking, though, Didion is a bit too much the "cool customer"--her own term--for my taste, but I can still recommend it for its clear look into someone's personal account of the grieving process.
It's okay
2/5 Goodreads
3/5 Amazon
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