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gretchini's review against another edition
4.0
Yeah, homegirl can write. Painful and beautiful read. (It did kinda slump for me in the middle and I don't think there needed to be so much name-dropping)
ayaminerva's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
grief is an equalizer. no one, even those with riches and privilege, gets insulated in the aftermath.
picked this up because i needed a book to help me /cope/. i read books that would help me /grieve/. like didion, i rationalized the process since my loss in january. i remember writing, as some sort of manifest, that i would forget particular details in the long run. that it would feel like a betrayal.
didion writes, "I know that as the days pass, as January becomes February and February becomes summer, certain things will happen....It will become less immediate, less raw...will become more remote, even mudgy, softened, transmuted into whatever best serves my life without him."
she adds in the end, as if a consolation but maybe akin to a prayer or a mantra—"...there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead. Let go of them in the water."
my thoughts run parallel with hers. in death and loss, we are all the same. isn't this proof then that we all love.
picked this up because i needed a book to help me /cope/. i read books that would help me /grieve/. like didion, i rationalized the process since my loss in january. i remember writing, as some sort of manifest, that i would forget particular details in the long run. that it would feel like a betrayal.
didion writes, "I know that as the days pass, as January becomes February and February becomes summer, certain things will happen....It will become less immediate, less raw...will become more remote, even mudgy, softened, transmuted into whatever best serves my life without him."
she adds in the end, as if a consolation but maybe akin to a prayer or a mantra—"...there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead. Let go of them in the water."
my thoughts run parallel with hers. in death and loss, we are all the same. isn't this proof then that we all love.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
3.0
This book--a book about grieving for her husband after his death of a heart attack in 2003--is exactly what I'd expected from an introspective writer like Didion.
It is part memoir, part investigation into the science, the biology of grief, part history of the human grieving process, and part eulogy to John, her husband. Didion is constantly making connections between and among her observations and experiences, and this book, steeped in a specific event with specific, visible effects, illustrates beautifully the way her mind works.
However, Didion is likely not for everyone, and this book is certainly not without issues. She writes from a place of white upper-middle-class privilege, and this perspective, which is not relatable, is visible on every page and with each of her moves. Instead of staying with friends in Los Angeles when her daughter is in the hospital, she stays in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. For weeks. The thought of the bill made me sweat a little. She name drops Hollywood directors, writers, and actors; she talks about her life in an ocean-front house in California, their family trips to Hawaii, Europe, and Asia, the trip her mother arranged for her to tour New York, Quebec, and Boston while Didion was on summer vacation from college at Berkley. She has not lived an "everyman" life, and that's what makes her who she is; but it also makes her a bit distant and hard to like.
Her writing, though, is subtle, smart, and nearly perfect, and this is ultimately one woman's specific story of grief. For that, it's beautiful and worth reading.
It is part memoir, part investigation into the science, the biology of grief, part history of the human grieving process, and part eulogy to John, her husband. Didion is constantly making connections between and among her observations and experiences, and this book, steeped in a specific event with specific, visible effects, illustrates beautifully the way her mind works.
However, Didion is likely not for everyone, and this book is certainly not without issues. She writes from a place of white upper-middle-class privilege, and this perspective, which is not relatable, is visible on every page and with each of her moves. Instead of staying with friends in Los Angeles when her daughter is in the hospital, she stays in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. For weeks. The thought of the bill made me sweat a little. She name drops Hollywood directors, writers, and actors; she talks about her life in an ocean-front house in California, their family trips to Hawaii, Europe, and Asia, the trip her mother arranged for her to tour New York, Quebec, and Boston while Didion was on summer vacation from college at Berkley. She has not lived an "everyman" life, and that's what makes her who she is; but it also makes her a bit distant and hard to like.
Her writing, though, is subtle, smart, and nearly perfect, and this is ultimately one woman's specific story of grief. For that, it's beautiful and worth reading.
lilyabryant's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a very raw look at loss and grief. I haven’t read anything like it. I appreciated Didion’s honesty, although at times, it was a bit confusing to get into her headspace.
merry_pensieve's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
jmrprice's review against another edition
3.0
A work dealing with the grief that comes with the sudden loss of a spouse complete with medical terminology and medications throughout due to the daughter’s significant illness. But instead of magical thinking, perhaps this would have been better titled ‘The year of distracted thinking’.