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A review by georgiepie
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I feel weird giving someone's personal experience a star rating so I'll leave it unrated, but please know that this was really something incredible.
There is a somewhat clinical feel about this memoir, but it is no accident. Didion goes out of her way to cite research on the effects of grief, and in turn, she analyses it. You can feel her standing back from it, trying desperately to understand it. And as she herself tries to get a sense of understanding, we ultimately do as well.
If you’ve ever grieved the loss of anyone, perhaps you may appreciate that grief does not follow some straight line, where you’re devastated and then day by day you’re less devastated, until one day you’re fine. As The Year of Magical Thinking makes clear, grief is sporadic and unpredictable. It ebbs and flows. There’s nothing logical about it, and trying to impose logic isn't going to help you at all.
And so, Didion takes a cab home from the hospital after the death of her husband John, and her first thought is that she really needs to discuss the situation with John. Heartbreaking.
There is a somewhat clinical feel about this memoir, but it is no accident. Didion goes out of her way to cite research on the effects of grief, and in turn, she analyses it. You can feel her standing back from it, trying desperately to understand it. And as she herself tries to get a sense of understanding, we ultimately do as well.
If you’ve ever grieved the loss of anyone, perhaps you may appreciate that grief does not follow some straight line, where you’re devastated and then day by day you’re less devastated, until one day you’re fine. As The Year of Magical Thinking makes clear, grief is sporadic and unpredictable. It ebbs and flows. There’s nothing logical about it, and trying to impose logic isn't going to help you at all.
And so, Didion takes a cab home from the hospital after the death of her husband John, and her first thought is that she really needs to discuss the situation with John. Heartbreaking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Death, and Grief