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timeywriter 's review for:
The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
Everyone deals with grief in different ways. This memoir details the year after the death of the author's husband and all the turbulence she found along the way.
Their daughter is in a coma at the ICU and it is just days after Christmas when Joan's husband, John, succumbs to a heart attack in their New York City apartment. An ambulance is called and John is rushed to the hospital, though nothing can be done, he has already passed. Unable to tell their unconscious daughter what has happened, Joan must trudge onward in the days after his death with the hope that her daughter will wake up soon. And while the title gives some hope that the year following her husband's death is magical in some way, it is far from such as Joan details her grief. I found it very hard to connect to this story, since I grieve in a very different way than Joan did. Our family is about celebration of life and fond memories, knowing that the person lived a life no matter how long. However, Joan details things that can no longer happen with her and John, of memories that are not always joyful and instead just informative. She spends a great deal of time either fixating on several phrases or referencing the past literary work of either herself or her husband. It seemed a little propagandized this way, that it was a beacon on their writing career more than anything else. I never got a sense of who John was as a father or as a husband. I also never got the sense of who the people were that were with Joan in this year, helping her and being with her as she grieved. Yes, there was her daughter, but she was in and out of a hospital most of that year. Again, it was just the facts of this and Joan's worrying. Nothing about her daughter's husband and his actions or thoughts. Very little of what her daughter did outside of her time in the hospital or her thoughts. Too many things or people were referenced that I had no idea about and therefore had a hard time understanding the flow of the story. Again, more about their famous literary life and the people they knew or the things they did than an actual reflection on the people involved with this year of mourning. It was just filled with pity and regret; something I cannot relate to when mourning someone.
So while I was unable to relate to this narrative, I know others might be able to gain insight and understanding from these words. Everyone grieves differently and this is just one reflection of an author's view.
Their daughter is in a coma at the ICU and it is just days after Christmas when Joan's husband, John, succumbs to a heart attack in their New York City apartment. An ambulance is called and John is rushed to the hospital, though nothing can be done, he has already passed. Unable to tell their unconscious daughter what has happened, Joan must trudge onward in the days after his death with the hope that her daughter will wake up soon. And while the title gives some hope that the year following her husband's death is magical in some way, it is far from such as Joan details her grief. I found it very hard to connect to this story, since I grieve in a very different way than Joan did. Our family is about celebration of life and fond memories, knowing that the person lived a life no matter how long. However, Joan details things that can no longer happen with her and John, of memories that are not always joyful and instead just informative. She spends a great deal of time either fixating on several phrases or referencing the past literary work of either herself or her husband. It seemed a little propagandized this way, that it was a beacon on their writing career more than anything else. I never got a sense of who John was as a father or as a husband. I also never got the sense of who the people were that were with Joan in this year, helping her and being with her as she grieved. Yes, there was her daughter, but she was in and out of a hospital most of that year. Again, it was just the facts of this and Joan's worrying. Nothing about her daughter's husband and his actions or thoughts. Very little of what her daughter did outside of her time in the hospital or her thoughts. Too many things or people were referenced that I had no idea about and therefore had a hard time understanding the flow of the story. Again, more about their famous literary life and the people they knew or the things they did than an actual reflection on the people involved with this year of mourning. It was just filled with pity and regret; something I cannot relate to when mourning someone.
So while I was unable to relate to this narrative, I know others might be able to gain insight and understanding from these words. Everyone grieves differently and this is just one reflection of an author's view.