The Year of Magical Thinking

Books | Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures

3.7

(12.6K)

Joan Didion

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion that explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage—and a life, in good times and bad—that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.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.

Self Help

Mental Health

Memoir

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Author

Joan Didion

Pages

240

Publisher

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Published Date

2007-02-13

ISBN

0307279723 9780307279729

Ratings

Google: 2

Community ReviewsSee all

"I heard about Quintana shortly after I read this book and was devastated by the news. This was my first book that I had read by her. I hadn’t heard of Let me tell you what I mean. I was thinking of reading Blue nights. Have you read that one?"

Sandy Lopez

"Beautiful"

Amy Yillik

"Pretty heart wrenching"

Chrissy

"One of my all time favorites.A meditation on death and life that must be experienced through the master’s words. Joan Didion accomplishes some truly astonishing. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟"

Ben FS

"I asked a friend recently if she'd read any Didion, and she said no because she's heard Didion "hits you like a train." While a part of me wanted to combat this in an effort to convince her to experience one of my favorite writers, I couldn't lie. Didion's work absolutely hits you like a train. I don't think I'd ever read anything but poetry about grief before this. And what a way to first experience the genre. Didion is raw and honest and real. The idea many readers have of her is her being powerful and certain of herself and logical but not lacking creativity. The Didion I saw in this work was the most vulnerable I've experienced so far. The titular concept of magical thinking may seem un-Didion, but that couldn't be further from the truth. A woman who felt and witnessed every event in her life with such specificity and examination of emotion couldn't help but love the same way. If I were to include every quote and passage that had me staring into space, it would discourage you from reading the book and that is the last thing I want. Even if you haven't experienced a recent loss or a loss at all, there is nothing that is more worth the read. Regardless, I'll leave you with two of my favorites, carefully chosen: "What would I give to be able to discuss this with John? / What would I give to be able to discuss anything at all with John? What would I give to be able to say one small thing that made him happy? What would that one small thing be? If I had said it in time would it have worked?" "I did not believe in the resurrection of the body but I still believed that given the right circumstances he would come back.""

K R

Kayla Randolph

"Don't read if you're actually grieving. Not helpful."

Corina Lujan

"Profound and captivating! Extremely brave for her to share her story with us. "

Lia D’Amato

"Wow. The author shares what is clearly the darkest moments in her life with us, and it almost seems as if she’s preparing us for when we ultimately are in the same place. Highly recommended."

D J

Denise Johnston-Burris

"Her authenticity and depth of self awareness speaks to me."