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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
sad
Vähiten suosikki Joan Didionin kirjoista, mikä on toki vähän oksymoron itsessään. Raskaista aiheista puuttui ilmaa, jonka Didion yleensä tuo teksteihinsä. Ehkä postuumin julkaisun seurausta?
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
emotional
fast-paced
reflective
sad
slow-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I would give this 5 stars if I could be sure that Didion wanted it published in the first place. If not, then this is a horrifying breach of confidence.
Deeply personal and should not have been published. Feels exploitative
informative
sad
fast-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
A really tricky book to rate. A posthumous publication of Joan Didion’s written-up therapy sessions from 2000-2001 as she tries to aid her alcoholic daughter’s recovery. The title is misleading as very little of this book features John Dunne in any capacity. The writing feels undeniably Didion. I’m unsure if this was ever intended to be published but it reads like her usual non-fiction. It is slightly messier than usual, I’m assuming as it had not undergone her usual scrutiny. Additionally, being a work in progress - it very much feels like it’s missing that steely Didion commentary. It’s purely just transcribed therapy sessions with interjections of small reflections. Very “I said” and then “he said”. I struggled to read more than a few entries at a time. With this being non-fiction, there’s also no huge arc here. Didion explores a few different areas of her upbringing and behaviours in therapy as they become relevant but there’s little progress in the narrative of her daughter’s ongoing alcohol problem. I feel like I read the same conversation regarding Quintana’s employment and relapses over and over again. It’s a harrowing portrayal of a mother lost in how to handle her daughter’s cyclical alcoholism but the lack of progress doesn’t translate well to a novel without something more to tie it together. It feels repetitive and there’s no major therapeutic breakthrough to aid this. It feels more like a skeleton of a novel than anything intended for consumption.
I wish I would’ve continued to read some of Didion’s more central work before this. This is an addendum for Blue Nights and far from an essential read. I’m sure a version intended for publication would’ve exceeded this but as a clear work-in-progress, (possibly abandoned given that it was written 20 years before her death??), it’s a struggle to recommend as a priority in the Didion canon.
I wish I would’ve continued to read some of Didion’s more central work before this. This is an addendum for Blue Nights and far from an essential read. I’m sure a version intended for publication would’ve exceeded this but as a clear work-in-progress, (possibly abandoned given that it was written 20 years before her death??), it’s a struggle to recommend as a priority in the Didion canon.
