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beatrizstg's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, and Medical content
rotfaced's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
5.0
One of my favorite nonfiction books. Joan Didion deserves her reputation as a riveting essayist and memoir writer, and this book brings that talent forth in earnest. Didion's writing crystalizes grief on the page, rendering it tangible to readers. A heartbreaking book, and not at all an easy read, but worthwhile for those who want to deepen their relationship with death, dying, and life after.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness
kaiulanilee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
If you want something that perfectly captures grief and how humans interact with and care for each other, this is the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma
annacorinne's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Joan writes through her grief generously. I had moments that were hard to get through for sure but others that flew by and swept me away. It was challenging to consider these facts of life that Joan had to face in such a devastating way. Definitely not a pleasure read, but one that has nuggets I will carry with me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Medical trauma
kelly_e's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Title: The Year of Magical Thinking
Author: Joan Didion
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.5
Pub Date: September 1, 2005
T H R E E • W O R D S
Raw • Heartbreaking • Honest
📖 S Y N O P S I S
The Year of Magical Thinking is a glimpse into Joan Didion's life in the year following her husband, John's sudden death in December 2003. Days before his death, the couple's daughter, Quintana, has been hospitalized with pneumonia, which eventually became septic shock. On the evening of December 30, after spending the afternoon visiting their unconscious daughter in the hospital, the couple had just sat down to dinner when John suffered a fatal coronary. This book is Joan's attempt to make sense of the days and weeks that would ensue. It is a story of loss and mourning, of coping and remembering, and ultimately a book about grief and love, because what is grief if it isn't an extension of love.
💭 T H O U G H T S
The Year of Magical Thinking was one of the most recommended books named when I sought out books on grief in my own on journey following the death of my partner. Written as a stream of consciousness, Didion presents an extremely raw and personal journey of grief, and the swift empty loss that follows. At times she struggles to put into words what is happening, and at other times she so eloquently puts into words what life is like in the days, weeks, months following death. I, myself, cannot imagine having read this in the very early stages of my own grief, and have been able to appreciate it in the same way that I have now. Although I suppose it could offer the comfort of knowing you're not alone. Having also experienced the unexpected death of my partner in February 2020, it is in her ability to put into the words the notion of 'magical thinking' that so often accompanies those early days, where you think the person is going to walk through the door. This is mainly HER story. While there are generalizations spread within, it really focuses on her thoughts and doings throughout that first year. My main criticism would definitely be that I felt it lacked the aspect of mourning, rather sticking closely to the facts of what happened before and after, as opposed to the emotional side. It must be taken into account the time period in which this book was published; a time when mourning was something considered to be private; and I suspect this memoir in itself was a giant leap for the times. Reading her story, I certainly felt my experience reflected, and she does a very good job at portraying the essence of grief, the all encompassing waves. And as she says, we all know that the people we love will die, but there is no knowing that to expect in grief, with each instance being unique.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• those grieving
• anyone who witnessing the loss of life as they knew it
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity."
"Grief is different. Grief has no distance. Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailiness of life. Virtually everyone who has ever experienced grief mentions this phenomenon of 'waves'."
"Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death."
"We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all."
Author: Joan Didion
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.5
Pub Date: September 1, 2005
T H R E E • W O R D S
Raw • Heartbreaking • Honest
📖 S Y N O P S I S
The Year of Magical Thinking is a glimpse into Joan Didion's life in the year following her husband, John's sudden death in December 2003. Days before his death, the couple's daughter, Quintana, has been hospitalized with pneumonia, which eventually became septic shock. On the evening of December 30, after spending the afternoon visiting their unconscious daughter in the hospital, the couple had just sat down to dinner when John suffered a fatal coronary. This book is Joan's attempt to make sense of the days and weeks that would ensue. It is a story of loss and mourning, of coping and remembering, and ultimately a book about grief and love, because what is grief if it isn't an extension of love.
💭 T H O U G H T S
The Year of Magical Thinking was one of the most recommended books named when I sought out books on grief in my own on journey following the death of my partner. Written as a stream of consciousness, Didion presents an extremely raw and personal journey of grief, and the swift empty loss that follows. At times she struggles to put into words what is happening, and at other times she so eloquently puts into words what life is like in the days, weeks, months following death. I, myself, cannot imagine having read this in the very early stages of my own grief, and have been able to appreciate it in the same way that I have now. Although I suppose it could offer the comfort of knowing you're not alone. Having also experienced the unexpected death of my partner in February 2020, it is in her ability to put into the words the notion of 'magical thinking' that so often accompanies those early days, where you think the person is going to walk through the door. This is mainly HER story. While there are generalizations spread within, it really focuses on her thoughts and doings throughout that first year. My main criticism would definitely be that I felt it lacked the aspect of mourning, rather sticking closely to the facts of what happened before and after, as opposed to the emotional side. It must be taken into account the time period in which this book was published; a time when mourning was something considered to be private; and I suspect this memoir in itself was a giant leap for the times. Reading her story, I certainly felt my experience reflected, and she does a very good job at portraying the essence of grief, the all encompassing waves. And as she says, we all know that the people we love will die, but there is no knowing that to expect in grief, with each instance being unique.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• those grieving
• anyone who witnessing the loss of life as they knew it
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity."
"Grief is different. Grief has no distance. Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailiness of life. Virtually everyone who has ever experienced grief mentions this phenomenon of 'waves'."
"Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death."
"We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Medical content, and Medical trauma
death of a partnerfrankoamericain's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma
ontheoffbeat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Grief
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