Whilst it may not be an easy read, Didion’s intensely powerful snapshot of a loving family torn apart in an instant and the painstaking attempts to make sense of sudden tragedy is one of the most profound books ever written about suffering and grief. Cast in lucid, pin-sharp prose, The Year of Magical Thinking is a truly unforgettable reading experience.
'This is a beautiful and devastating book by one of the finest writers we have. Didion has always been a precise, humane and meticulously truthful writer, but on the subject of death she becomes essential.' - Zadie Smith
From one of America's iconic writers, a portrait of a marriage and a life - in good times and bad - that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. A stunning book of electric honesty and passion.
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill. At first they thought it was flu, then pneumonia, then complete sceptic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support.
Days later - the night before New Year's Eve -the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of 40 years was over.
Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LA airport, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Centre to relieve a massive hematoma.
This powerful book is Didion's 'attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness ... about marriage and children and memory ... about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself'. The result is an exploration of an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage, and a life, in good times and bad.
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007216857
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 170 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 15 mm
‘It is the most awesome performance of both participating in, and watching, an event. Even though Didion does not allow herself to break down, only a terribly controlled reader will resist doing the same.’ John Freeman, Independent ‘Ultimately, and unexpectedly for a book about illness and death, this is a wonderfully life affirming book.’ Lisa O’Kelly, Observer ‘Searing, informative and affecting. Don’t leave life without it.’ Financial Times ‘This is a beautiful and devastating book by one of the finest writers we have. Didion has always been a precise, humane and meticulously truthful writer, but on the subject of death she becomes essential.’ Zadie Smith ‘Taking the reader to places where they would not otherwise go is one of the things a really good book can do. “The Year of Magical Thinking” does just that, and brilliantly. Powerful, moving and true.’ Cressida Connolly, Spectator ‘A great book, a great work. Angular, exact, pressured and tough, precise as a diamond drill bit.’ Nick Laird
This is the book that Didon wrote after the very sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, at home over dinner. At the same time her daughter was seriously ill in hospital, and was not aware of her fathers... More
Excellent writing
“About five in the afternoon on the 24th I thought I could not do the evening but when the time came the evening did itself.”
More than a manual for surviving grief, Joan Didion’s “The Year of Magical Thinking” is...
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