A review by cassbarker
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0


i genuinely think this might be one of the saddest book i've ever read. and didion isn't even an innately sad writer, her essay collections are exquisitely thought provoking, yeah, but nothing at all like this memoir which i found to be inherently very emotional in its topic. this destroyed me to say the least. i just finished it and i think i just need to sit and stare at a wall. 

the way didion recounts everything into the pages makes it feel like a direct excerpt from her brain. her exploration of grief is self-intuitive, genuine and utterly perfect through the non-linear feel that truly represents grief in the rawest way. the way she is able to pull apart grief as concept and dishointedly piece it back together is so moving and emotional and oh my god. 

the only thing that made it lose a fraction off of 5 stars for me was down to my personal preference to in the drive behind a book, i get the most pleasure out of reading a character exploration that is dependent on the hinges of a plot. obviously as a memoir, it approaches this differently to a novel, but i lost a bit of drive in the middle as she strayed away from details. that being said this is an objectively perfect memoir. joan didion is a god amongst men in her prose. 
literally everyone has to read something by this woman because oh my god you are missing out.
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