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marthaos 's review for:
Notes to John
by Joan Didion
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I was browsing BorrowBox when I saw this come up. I had read The Year of Magical Thinking quite a while ago but I remember it being excellent, something that lingered long after reading. This was on audiobook, read by Julianne Moore, whose voice I love.
This was basically a transcript of sessions with a psychiatrist that Didion attended during a difficult period in an effort to help her daughter Quintana, who at that time was failing to recover from alcoholism, and who was isolating herself and not able to get any foothold on life and her own career pathway. In an effort to unpack their relationship and what she might be doing to inhibit her daughter’s recovery, she talks to Dr Cass who guides her in discovering what patterns, past traumas and personal baggage is unconsciously getting in the way of changing a dynamic that currently isn’t working. The premise is really interesting, a deep-dive into the shadow side and what might be necessary to bring to the light for change to occur. However, it is also deeply personal and while I was really interested, another part of me felt it was a transgression, something that perhaps should be as the title says “…for John”.
This raises an important question about books/notes/letters published posthumously. Whose right is it and who gets to decide? It’s something that I was aware of while listening, especially given the intimacy of the subject-matter, and did make me feel uncomfortable: not only is the author’s private life being exposed but her daughter’s too.
The writing is beautifully detailed but objective and non-emotive which is amazing given the dark areas they were addressing: alcoholism, addiction, illness, ageing, adoption, trauma, work, depression…
This is a tricky one to recommend…having listened to it myself, I’m not sure if I should have. It was compelling, intimate and gave great insight into how this writer dealt with a painful period in her life.
This was basically a transcript of sessions with a psychiatrist that Didion attended during a difficult period in an effort to help her daughter Quintana, who at that time was failing to recover from alcoholism, and who was isolating herself and not able to get any foothold on life and her own career pathway. In an effort to unpack their relationship and what she might be doing to inhibit her daughter’s recovery, she talks to Dr Cass who guides her in discovering what patterns, past traumas and personal baggage is unconsciously getting in the way of changing a dynamic that currently isn’t working. The premise is really interesting, a deep-dive into the shadow side and what might be necessary to bring to the light for change to occur. However, it is also deeply personal and while I was really interested, another part of me felt it was a transgression, something that perhaps should be as the title says “…for John”.
This raises an important question about books/notes/letters published posthumously. Whose right is it and who gets to decide? It’s something that I was aware of while listening, especially given the intimacy of the subject-matter, and did make me feel uncomfortable: not only is the author’s private life being exposed but her daughter’s too.
The writing is beautifully detailed but objective and non-emotive which is amazing given the dark areas they were addressing: alcoholism, addiction, illness, ageing, adoption, trauma, work, depression…
This is a tricky one to recommend…having listened to it myself, I’m not sure if I should have. It was compelling, intimate and gave great insight into how this writer dealt with a painful period in her life.