The Year of Magical Thinking Review

She first wrote these shortly after her husband John dropped dead as they were eating dinner on December 30, 2003 but the memoir didn't take shape until nine months later.  Didion then steps back in time and reconstructs this event and the ones leading up to it.

As a professional writer Didion was comfortable with creating and explaining characters; now she had to understand the most difficult character of all-herself.  She reflects on what can only be called anti-rational behavior.  In the first several sections of the book she reminisces about how she thought her husband was not dead: even after his funeral, even after his burial and even after a memorial service.  She writes that "I needed to be alone so that he could come back."

If the sudden death of a spouse wasn't enough, her adopted daughter Quintana is, at the same time, hospitalized and in a coma in a New York City hospital.  The daughter doesn't learn of her father's death until much later.  In July 2005 Quintana dies just prior to the memoir being published but Didion does not amend it to note Quintana's death.  It reminds me of the scriptural line of Pilate; "What I have written, I have written."

I thought the book rambled a bit but perhaps Didion would agree.  There is a poignant note early in the book that "grief, when it comes, is nothing we expect it to be."  At the end of the book she remarks that "grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it."  But the memoir is more than just a book; it's like having a conversation with a person in mourning.  We forgive them if they repeat things.  We nod in agreement as if we could understand another person's grief. 

This aspect of conversation enabled Didion to write a one person play that briefly appeared on Broadway starring Vanessa Redgrave.  It didn't last long only because the critics in their honesty lauded the book but carped at the play.  Perhaps they are right for not every book can be reconstructed into a play.  This is not a happy book and basically Broadway likes happy plays. 

I smiled rarely while reading it but I certainly didn't laugh.  That's not to say it isn't an important book.  I highly recommend it but read it slowly like a prayer book and meditate on her words.  It's a conversation between the reader and Ms. Didion and although she does most of talking the reader will do a lot of thinking-magical I hope.