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A review by casskrug
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
4.0
when i initially read this book back in 2022, i flew through it. it was my first experience reading joan didion and i definitely didn’t take the time to absorb the gravity of her words. this time around, i found myself incredibly affected by joan’s recounting of the year after her husband john passed away unexpectedly. during that time, her daughter quintana was incapacitated in various ICUs dealing with life threatening conditions. i was incapable of flying through the book while rereading it. if i read too much in one sitting i felt distressed thinking of joan’s situation: mourning her husband of 40 years while fearing for her daughter’s life. joan had to tell quintana that john passed away three separate times due to her coma, and it’s heartbreaking to think that joan wasn’t able to find comfort with the other person who was closest to john.
people love to talk about didion’s detachment in her writing style. it doesn’t work for everyone, but if anything i think it makes this book hit harder. through the process of writing, we see didion actively trying to make order out of the things her family went through, trying to figure out what she could’ve done differently to prevent the loss and trauma that occurred. she talks about how her coping mechanism in times of trouble has always been to learn and “go to the literature” and she does just that, reading psychology texts about grief and medical texts about quintana’s condition. she will focus in on a train of thought that has nothing to do with her husband or daughter, thinking that it will distract her, but things always end up circling back to her loved ones, and she will be swept off her feet by an unexpected memory arising. her analytical approach makes her moments of vulnerability that much more striking.
i am so glad i decided to reread this book. there are so many moments in it that i know will now stick with me. there’s a reason why this book has the reputation that it does.
people love to talk about didion’s detachment in her writing style. it doesn’t work for everyone, but if anything i think it makes this book hit harder. through the process of writing, we see didion actively trying to make order out of the things her family went through, trying to figure out what she could’ve done differently to prevent the loss and trauma that occurred. she talks about how her coping mechanism in times of trouble has always been to learn and “go to the literature” and she does just that, reading psychology texts about grief and medical texts about quintana’s condition. she will focus in on a train of thought that has nothing to do with her husband or daughter, thinking that it will distract her, but things always end up circling back to her loved ones, and she will be swept off her feet by an unexpected memory arising. her analytical approach makes her moments of vulnerability that much more striking.
i am so glad i decided to reread this book. there are so many moments in it that i know will now stick with me. there’s a reason why this book has the reputation that it does.