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katiethepineapplequeen's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
tesssie's review against another edition
4.0
I think I expected to be way more impacted by this book than I was. I did enjoy the way the reader can feel that she is hyper fixated on details surrounding Johns death throughout. This book is basically a journal of her year, so I don’t think she was worried about pandering to her literary audience and that’s fair. I’ll probably revisit in a period of grief/loss.
robyn1998's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
2.5
I'm so disappointed! I found this to be a very frustrating and unfulfilling read. I'm fortunate enough not to have gone through the kind of grief Joan Didion is describing, but I do live in fear of my loved ones dying and often feel a need to "prepare" myself for the eventuality.
Writing about something so personal, so shortly after the actual loss, must have been an extremely difficult feat and I couldn't begin to imagine Joan Didion's pain and strength, but that unfortunately doesn't translate into me liking the book.
The compulsive name-dropping was intensely irritating (surely everyone knew that she had famous friends, why does she keep trying to prove it?)
I also didn't appreciate the way Joan Didion kept trying to generalise her experience of grief when 99% of us don't live such a gilded life. We must unfortunately go on with our mundane existences and get back to work if we want to hold it together and not become destitute.
Comparing this to one of my favourite books I've read this year, Crying in H Mart, it doesn't measure up for me. If Didion had kept it to personal reflections (which were very introspective and thought-provoking) rather than trying to teach us all a grand lesson, in a similar way to Michelle Zauner, I would've enjoyed this a lot more.
Writing about something so personal, so shortly after the actual loss, must have been an extremely difficult feat and I couldn't begin to imagine Joan Didion's pain and strength, but that unfortunately doesn't translate into me liking the book.
The compulsive name-dropping was intensely irritating (surely everyone knew that she had famous friends, why does she keep trying to prove it?)
I also didn't appreciate the way Joan Didion kept trying to generalise her experience of grief when 99% of us don't live such a gilded life. We must unfortunately go on with our mundane existences and get back to work if we want to hold it together and not become destitute.
Comparing this to one of my favourite books I've read this year, Crying in H Mart, it doesn't measure up for me. If Didion had kept it to personal reflections (which were very introspective and thought-provoking) rather than trying to teach us all a grand lesson, in a similar way to Michelle Zauner, I would've enjoyed this a lot more.
hannahproctor's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
2.5
I appreciate this account of her grief but eat the rich fr
kajaglede's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
my therapy bill just went up….
(…), I would be fine alone.
Until the morning. When, only half awake, I tried to think why I was alone in bed. There was a leaden feeling with which I woke on mornings after John and I had fought. Had we had a fight? What about, how had it started, how could we fix it if I could not remember how it started.
I needed to be alone so that he could come back. This was the beginning of my year of magical thinking.
Why make this call and not just say what you wanted? His eyes. His blue eyes. His blue imperfect eyes.
(…). Geese had been observed reacting to such a death by flying and calling, searching until they themselves became disoriented and lost. Human beings, I read but did not need to learn, showed similar patterns of response. They searched. They stopped eating. They forgot to breathe.
(…)
I began carrying identification when I walked in Central Park in the morning, in case it happened to me.
If the telephone rang when I was in the shower I no longer answered it, to avoid falling dead on the tile.
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?
‘More than one more day,’ he had whispered to her before he walked her to the altar.
‘More than one more day,’ he had whispered to her on the five days and nights he saw her in the Beth Israel North ICU.
‘More than one more day,’ I had whispered to her in his absence on the days and nights that followed.
As you used to say to me, she had said when she stood in her black dress at St. John the Divine on the day we committed his ashes.
camicarreno's review against another edition
5.0
Este libro es tan fuerte e impactante, tan honesto y desgarrador, tan lindo y terrible. Lloré casi con cada página, no es la primera vez que lo leía, pero es la primera vez que lo entendí y que lo sentí, porque lo viví. El duelo es una de esas cosas que tienes que vivir para ser capaz de entender.
El dolor es tan profundo, tan inconmensurable, que me sorprende lo bien que logró captarlo Joan Didion en esta novela/ensayo.
El dolor es tan profundo, tan inconmensurable, que me sorprende lo bien que logró captarlo Joan Didion en esta novela/ensayo.