The Year of Magical Thinking Paperback – 4 Sept. 2006

A moving and at times devastating book- anyone who has lost someone will be able to relate to this. I couldn’t put it down- a touching portrait of grief

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.

This is an account of what happens to us all, nothing more. Critics maybe blinded by her reputation seem to think it is something special. The writing is clear, but everyone grieves, she is not special and nor was her grieving. The title draws you in, but it is a very ordinary and sometimes boring book.

A moving account of coping with tremendous grief and trauma. Didion is a wonderful writer whose applies her methodical and dissective approach to the concept of loss and regret. The "magical thinking" in the title refers to the irrational ways in which the mind tries to protect itself from the anguish of grief and how even someone as logical and self-aware as Didion can succumb to fantastical thought patterns and pointless hypothericals. The questions one asks when faced with such loss are to ask oneself what could I have done differently or how could things have been different? Trying to make peace with this pain is the central concern of this book and is beautifully done.

I read this on the recommendation of a list of books worth reading. It was an ok book, but I think it's been overhyped so perhaps I had too high expectations of it. Worth a look but I wouldn't make it top of the list. I was expecting something a little inspiring and instead found it a little flat and depressing in places but kudos to Didion for writing about such a personal and difficult experience.

This book is hypnotic and full of sharp, imposing shards of prose that reflect the author's conscious and unconscious responses to losing her life partner. The smoothness of the journey is a testament to the craftsmanship, because the subject-matter is devastating and arrests one with prismatic reflections and repetitions of phrases still wistfully regnant in the nostalgic memories laid forth in the text. I had been drawn to this book having (entirely by chance - perchance a magical parallel) come upon a copy of the author's Blue Nights, and was struck by the force of the prose considering its deceptive simplicity. I would encourage readers both with an ear for interesting-metered American English, and those who have ever wondered how to cope with the entropy of losing someone they hold fondly, to give this a try. The book is broken up into short chapters which aid reflection and also add to the effect of scenic shifts.

This is a very sad but well written account of the havoc that is caused to the family in question. It is heartbreaking but is treated with great sensitivity. It proves that none of us are protected from sickness and death however we may seem to be favored by our everyday life. This family appears to be very successful professionally, they seem to have wealth and are supported by a large family and a great number of friends. When misfortune strikes it helps the mother and wife in question to sustain herself to produce this work with her inner resistance.

It's raw, poetic and chaotic. Didion bares her soul candidly about such a harrowing moment in her life, that we can't help but join her in this experience. It's spellbinding. I just couldn't put it down. Highly recommended for all those who have gone through or wish to further understand the grieving process.

La narrativa enigmatica de Didion nos invita a lo más íntimo de su relación y de su duelo.Llegó un poco maltratado.

Ce livre - on y retourne et on y retourne!

Perfect

Very gripping