Play Book Tag discussion
April, 2016: Female Author
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The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion ★★★★1/2
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Kate
(last edited Apr 16, 2016 02:18PM)
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Apr 16, 2016 02:16PM
The Year of Magical Thinking
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Can you copy/paste the review here please?
Didion’s memoir is a wrenching account of the loss of her husband of 40 plus years from a sudden massive coronary while their only child was comatose and near death in a nearby hospital. She recounts how she dealt with the stress and grief through “magical thinking” a syndrome that we all indulge in even if we fail to identify it as such. As she describes it, she doesn’t want to give his last pair of shoes to the Goodwill because he will need shoes when he comes back. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one will find plenty to identify with in this work.
I abandoned this. Yes, the denial is what I was familiar with after my father died when I was a child of 9. There was nothing new in this.
I thought this was pretty special too, with its portrayal of her internal discombobulation. Pretty brave to share such closeness to madness and capture it in language. Little dwelling on feelings themselves or the life of the lost one in favor of rendering the thinking and bumbling along. About two-thirds of my GR friends rated it 4-5 stars, but one third were, like Elizabeth not so impressed. One characterized it as "a dry catalog of human misery."
Oh, absolutely a favorite of mine, I am so glad you read it.
