Reviews

A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion

b_ryten's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

shareuhlin's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

ugnegud's review

medium-paced

4.0

afraidoftimebeforeigrew's review

medium-paced

3.5

ccreadz's review

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I feel like this book didn't age very well. There's nothing wrong with enjoying older stories that are obviously set in the past but this story ages like milk instead of wine really 
I find it hard to enjoy stories that have a mainly POC setting yet choose to have priviledged white people as the main characters I honestly would be more interested in reading the perspective of the boca grande locals and how their lives were affected by colonization and war

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Child death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Colonisation, Cancer, Chronic illness, Racism, and Terminal illness

heyyyther's review

4.0

The beginning was confusing and some of the language was grotesquely outdated for a modern read BUT it is still a Didion with beautiful and jarring writing, complex women grieving in destructive ways, and depth of geopolitical tensions with American intrusion.

chelsea_egg's review

4.0

The first line of this book:
"I will be her witness."
The last line:
"I have not been the witness I wanted to be."

garleighc's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

lynnedf's review

3.0

3.5 star read.

I liked this book. I thought it was written almost sparingly - Didion didn't waste words, sentences, paragraphs. She just created a place and time that worked really well.

I trusted the narration right from the start since it was Grace telling us Charlotte's story. Grace fully admitted to a certain ignorance of events, or the learning of them second-hand. However it all felt authentic.

The story reminded me somewhat of [b:Bel Canto|5826|Bel Canto|Ann Patchett|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352997328s/5826.jpg|859342] -both take place in a made-up South American country. This was the story of a person's life - loves, loss, depression, acceptance, lies, etc. I would almost call it a simple tale - really well told.

beatrice_k's review against another edition

4.0

A quick and strange and interesting book, made more interesting by the fact that it’s the 21st century and no reasonable person would empathize with the out of touch rich white men and women profiting off war, indirectly or directly. While reading this novel it is very easy to find yourself siding not with the guirreleros exactly but not so far away from the revolutionaries in America. “Is, was, will be.” Deep and dark and heavy for something so slight.