The Year of Magical Thinking
Back of the Book
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later—the night before New Year’s Eve—the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.
This powerful book is Didion’ s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness ... about marriage and children and memory ... about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.
Why You Should Read It
Didion’s senses sharpen in the weather of her grief as she tackles the project to tell it as it always is - how grief binds the past with the present in such a way that it becomes impossible to live beyond it. It is less an issue of perseverance and more a reverence for the act of writing, and how it immortalizes the act of loving, establishing a legacy for loves lost to time.
Memorable Passage
I found earthquakes, even when I was in them, deeply satisfying, abruptly revealed evidence of the scheme in action. That the schemes could destroy the works of man might be a personal regret but remained, in the larger picture I had come to recognize, a matter of abiding indifference. No eye was on the sparrow. No eye was watching me.
About the Author
Joan Didion (1934–2021) was an iconic American author and essayist whose profound impact on literature and journalism has earned her a revered place in the cultural landscape. Born in California, Didion's sharp, incisive prose captured the essence of the tumultuous 1960s and '70s, and her work became synonymous with the New Journalism movement. Renowned for essays such as Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, Didion's writing delves into the complexities of American society, politics, and her personal experiences. With an unparalleled ability to distill the nuances of the human condition, she explored themes of loss, identity, and the fragility of existence. Didion's work not only shaped contemporary nonfiction but also influenced a generation of writers who admired her distinctive voice, precision, and courage to confront uncomfortable truths. Joan Didion is worth knowing for her literary prowess, her journalistic legacy, and her unflinching exploration of the cultural and emotional landscapes of modern America.
Further Reading
“'The Year of Magical Thinking': Goodbye to All That” by Robert Pinsky, The New York Times
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