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

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

I am reading this book for the second time. I like the rhythm in Joan Didion's writing, her meticulous note taking which is reflected in her writing (possibly based on Dunne's warning that "the ability to make a note when something came to mind was the difference between being able to write and not being able to write"), her transparency, vulnerability and sincerity as a human being and a writer.

But I couldn't help myself from thinking about the unbelievable privileges she enjoys and the casual (but sincere) way in which she writes about them. On one side, the book made me realise that elites, despite their huge potential to take control over their lives, remain thoroughly helpless and shaken in front of death, grief, pain and loneliness like rest of us (at least until now). On the other side, despite the huge literary merit and self-awareness, I felt an urgent need to wean away from books like this to find similar stories of people from less-privileged backgrounds.