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A review by sham1ka_
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
4.0
I’m not sure what made this book so hard to finish. Maybe because it’s short but dense? It’s also repetitive, but i think that worked in favor of the book? I mean she’s trying to illustrate her experiences following her husband’s passing, and naturally since she’s full of grief, everything would feel dull and tedious. Didion took the time to write about every facet of grief that she’s experienced no matter how oddly specific she could get.
Some people said this book made them cry. I think what i felt was the kind of sadness you feel when a not-so-close relative dies, and you see everyone around you grieving. And that makes sense once you read what she wrote about grief: “Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it.” Because we never truly know something until we experience it ourselves. We can only have so much empathy, we can feel pity, but that’s it.
What I love about Didion’s writing in this one is the way she connected ideas that, on the surface, seem unrelated. Particularly when she wrote about geological phenomena and her nihilistic worldview. She explained how natural disasters just happen, there is no greater meaning behind them and for that reason she feels comforted. She saw these as indicators of the meaninglessness of life, not in the sense that she shouldn’t live it anymore, but in the sense that she could live and be as she wished, because no one is watching. “No eye was on the sparrow.” Same goes for her husband’s death. It just happened, and she has to live despite the loss.
Some people said this book made them cry. I think what i felt was the kind of sadness you feel when a not-so-close relative dies, and you see everyone around you grieving. And that makes sense once you read what she wrote about grief: “Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it.” Because we never truly know something until we experience it ourselves. We can only have so much empathy, we can feel pity, but that’s it.
What I love about Didion’s writing in this one is the way she connected ideas that, on the surface, seem unrelated. Particularly when she wrote about geological phenomena and her nihilistic worldview. She explained how natural disasters just happen, there is no greater meaning behind them and for that reason she feels comforted. She saw these as indicators of the meaninglessness of life, not in the sense that she shouldn’t live it anymore, but in the sense that she could live and be as she wished, because no one is watching. “No eye was on the sparrow.” Same goes for her husband’s death. It just happened, and she has to live despite the loss.