The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005)

Joan Didion recounts the year in which her husband died, her only child became seriously ill, and she had to question reality.

Book Review: The Year of Magical Thinking is a very individual story, from a certain kind of culture on how to deal with death. The daughter of a serviceman, as a child Didion was a military dependent who traveled frequently with intermittent schooling. She came from a background where one doesn't show weakness or emotion, as showing emotion is a form of weakness. Never let them see you sweat. Where the answer to any problem is to work harder, and if that doesn't succeed, then to work harder still. No excuses. Some critics call her cold and unfeeling, others say she's whiny and self-indulgent. To me this contradiction reveals the depth of her writing. In The Year of Magical Thinking Didion may at times seem cold, analytical, unaffected by the tragic events of the year, but in her quiet way the perceptive reader can see her screaming like her hair's on fire. Her 40-year marriage ends with her husband's death. Working partners for much of their lives together, editing each other's books, writing screenplays together. With the loss the sensible Didion succumbs to hope and magical belief, that if she can just get it right her husband will return. She can't give away his shoes after the funeral, because when he returns he'll need shoes. At the same time her daughter is in a coma. She searches literature and science, poetry and research for a means to cope. At times as a reader it seemed Didion was tough and hard and dealing, and then I realized the tears in my eyes. There are some cultures which pretend death doesn't really happen, which erect a screen between death and our response to it, but then suddenly realize the random unbidden effects on our lives. The Year of Magical Thinking speaks clearly to that world.  [4★]