In an exceptional writing style Joan Didion articulates the experience of losing a love-mate, one of the largest losses in life. And at the same time accounts the health crisis her daughter was experiencing. Painful, real, alive, and magical without being syrupy, make this book one of the authors best gifts to the human experience. Readers needing a quick dose of how-can-I-get-through-another-day of grieving or life should read this book. Didion’s breakout recounting of her own experience of death, families, and relationships won the National Book Award.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, ISBN 1-4000-4314-X, Hardcover, 227 Pages, $23.95 is filled with love of a life partnership through thick and thin, physical and emotional closeness, intellect and writing, articulation and transformation that create a level of love many will never approach. Refusing to put a scrim over the pain, Ms. Didion lets the reader absorb her minute-by-minute heart and mind transitioning loss that was forty years old. She takes you to the edge of sorrow, grief and life, alternating between baby and adult steps.
The flowing style omits chapter titles, but is separated into twenty-two chapters comprised of thoughts, reflections, conversations and narrations. Written in a first-person conversational style, you feel that you are with the author and she is reliving her history with you face-to-face over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Rarely can a real-life account of incredible stress and life change be laid out into a narrative that leaves you smiling one minute and crying the next.
Anyone who is facing, in the middle of or coming out of a major life change should read this book. After assimilating this excellent work you will have a deeper understanding of life, love, family and relationships.
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The Year of Magical Thinking - By Joan Didion
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