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A review by bittersweet_symphony
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
2.0
Chalk it up to a generational gap, but I struggled to connect with Didion. Or was it due to a cultural divide?
I almost willed myself into connecting to Didion's inner life, but found Blue Nights shockingly tedious for such a short read. She swam in culturally elite circles, among important literary and media figures, which added to the distance I felt from her as a writer. She seemed to drop names of presumably weighty people I was supposed to know, but cared little for, leaving me to doubt whether they added much emotional significance to her writing.
In what ways do these people matter to her?!?
For being a memior about the death of her daughter, Blue Nights felt oddly nihilistic. Didion's own admitted inability to create new stories or explanations for these events wins out in a way that won't reward many readers. I'm sure I'm not the only one placating the author for ways that others might make sense of a child's death or other acutely painful parts of parenthood.
I almost willed myself into connecting to Didion's inner life, but found Blue Nights shockingly tedious for such a short read. She swam in culturally elite circles, among important literary and media figures, which added to the distance I felt from her as a writer. She seemed to drop names of presumably weighty people I was supposed to know, but cared little for, leaving me to doubt whether they added much emotional significance to her writing.
In what ways do these people matter to her?!?
For being a memior about the death of her daughter, Blue Nights felt oddly nihilistic. Didion's own admitted inability to create new stories or explanations for these events wins out in a way that won't reward many readers. I'm sure I'm not the only one placating the author for ways that others might make sense of a child's death or other acutely painful parts of parenthood.