The Year of Magical Thinking: National Book Award Winner (Vintage International)

A privilege to share the innermost thoughts and perceptions of Joan Didion as she navigates her way through the first year of her widowhood.I found much to identify with.Magical indeed.

I had no intention to buy or read this book. It popped up on screen at a reduced price through Bookbub. I'd heard of the author's name and reputation so I just looked at the first few pages in the preview and...And that was that.Hooked. Book bought. Book read straight away, leaving other books-in-progress on the shelf. The author treads the narrow line of self-indulgence while she just lets rip about her mental state after the sudden deathof her husband and the serious illness of their daughter. The book is quietly moving. Another reviewer here has said devastating and they're right.

Didion gives us the privilege of spending a year with her. A year in which her husband dies of a massive heart attack at the table as they sit down for dinner, and a year in which her only child hangs onto life by a thread in intensive care suffering from one potentially fatal illness after another.Didion's prose is always lucid, but here the crisp journalistic approach to her subject is muted by her personal odyssey, her frantic need to try to understand and get to grips with events and feelings that are not as easily pinned down or understood as the hard facts and figures she reads and writes about, trying to give herself something to use as an anchor point in her rapidly disintegrating life.Other reviewers have commented on her lack of warmth, her obsessive compulsion to log the minutiae of the days that follow her husband's death and suggested that this means that she is cold. Far from it in my opinion. At the beginning of the book she talks about the strange split in one's psyche when someone close to you dies, the feeling that the world has shattered apart and will never be the same again. Yet at the same time one is obliged to continue living life as if unaffected because our modern sensibilities do not allow for outpourings of raw grief. Then there is the fact that even if we grieve more ostentatiously, the world with all its drab little facts continues turning whether we like it or not.Didion walks the tightrope between a grief so profound that she dare not throw away her husband's shoes in case he comes back and needs them, and the fact that she has to be present in the world for her daughter. She clings to the pragmatic, to the facts, like a drowning woman grabbing a life raft. Her prose is exquisite, much like her pain. An astonishing book.

I read this after the recent death notice of the author. I must say that I tend to agree with some of the reviews that there is very little we learn about the husband, daughter and even less about the depths of her loss after a 40 years marriage, considering that they worked at home most of time, practically together all the time. The lack of feelings appears to imply a lack of intimacy. They could not have children, we are told; one left with a vague feeling if the marriage was consummated at all. It sounds like two co-workers sharing a house and daily routines! I appreciate her background as a reporter but she seemed hiding behind a screen of dry medical descriptions etc. In doing so not much revealed of a grieving widow.

My husband died 3 months ago. Suicide rather than heart attack. This was one of the books recommended to me by Claude when I explained the bitterness I was feeling and my knowledge that I had to find a way for that bitterness to not eat me. I also let Claude know that I had not got along with Plan B.This book has helped me find calm and hope. Where I was, to where I am having read it, I could not give a more positive review of this book. If you need it, you will know. And it will help.

If you've experienced the death of someone close to you, I would definitely recommend this book. It will help you to understand what you're going through and have some compassion for your grieving process. I enjoyed aspects of this book but I also found it a little cold and detached.I enjoyed Goscovitch's, The Honey Catchers, more, which depicts a 13 year old's reaction to the sudden death of her father. Maybe because she is British so it mirrors more my own experience, I found her book moving and full of life.

A good read

This book was interesting - in some ways I was confused by the writing style, seemed a little "jumpy" and agitated but then it hit me that it was her grief and mourning she was referring too, which is never wrapped in a neat little bow. Therefore I accepted the writing style and tone as a reflection of what she was going through and enjoyed her writing for what it was. Definitely some tough hitting moments in there and a good overall read.

Ottimo

Great book to read. Enjoyed reading it

Uma descrição jornalística dos sentimentos que perpassam uma pessoa durante o processo de luto. Principalmente, no primeiro ano, todas as primeiras vezes sem a pessoa ao seu lado - primeiro aniversário, primeiro dia das mães, dia dos pais, natal, ano novo....muito triste, mas necessário. Prova que não estamos sozinhos neste processo. Os sentimentos são parecidos.

For me, this is one of those books that is so personally written, it touches you to your core and you feel the author speaks to you.Joan Didion writes about the sudden loss of her husband, who dies right in front of her while her daughter, their only child, is in a coma...If you have love anyone (person or pet) or have lost anyone, if that pain of loss is raw or even 20 years in the past this is an amazing read. It was thought provoking and even life changing as I had to truly allow myself to grieve and decide who and what I wanted to matter.

Me encantó el libro.