A Year of Magical Thinking

For years I heard professors talk about the brilliant Joan Didion in Journalism school. They'd go on about her influence on "new journalism," and her ability to create a story, whether political, personal or both in nature.

I think the New York Times Magazine sums it up best in their interview, where she reflects on the book's subject - the death of her husband, and the sickness of her only daughter, who eventually succumbs to her illness:

When Everything Changes

" ... One of the book’s great accomplishments is its intimacy, this sense that you are being let in on the secret to how Didion’s legendarily symbiotic relationship with Dunne actually worked—how they spoke to each other, how they worked together, what they argued about. When she decodes the family shorthand, it brings tears to the eyes because it is like an X-ray of the most private, precious thing of all: their love. In the end, the book is really a portrait of a very unusual, successful marriage. In one particularly moving scene, which took place on Didion’s birthday, just a month before Dunne died, he reads aloud to her from one of her own books, A Book of Common Prayer, as they sit by the fire on a snowy night. “Goddamn,” he said to her as he closed the book. “Don’t ever tell me again you can’t write. That’s my birthday present to you.” ..."

I didn't think it was a perfect book, but I'm really no expert. I found it repetitive and sometimes whiny, but then again, I'm sure if I ever had to go through either of the things that she did I'm sure I'd want to get it all out onto paper like that, without forgetting even the tiniest detail.