"Let them become the photograph on the table."
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
Joan Didion
The honest and fiercely ruminative portrait of a writer grieving and then in mourning follows Didion in the year after the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The attempts, on her own, to come to terms with the loss and its suddenness are among the most poignant passages in the book; some of the name-dropping and occasional glimpses into a past life filled with dining out and hobnobbing with industry heavyweights occasionally detracts from the gravitas. I'd only read Didion's political reporting before this, and while the prose style didn't seem a true fit for the subject matter, I was increasingly convinced, as I moved through the slim volume, that, to my pleasant surprise, I was wrong.
Joan Didion
The honest and fiercely ruminative portrait of a writer grieving and then in mourning follows Didion in the year after the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The attempts, on her own, to come to terms with the loss and its suddenness are among the most poignant passages in the book; some of the name-dropping and occasional glimpses into a past life filled with dining out and hobnobbing with industry heavyweights occasionally detracts from the gravitas. I'd only read Didion's political reporting before this, and while the prose style didn't seem a true fit for the subject matter, I was increasingly convinced, as I moved through the slim volume, that, to my pleasant surprise, I was wrong.