This is my first and last book by Joan Didion. Honestly, I do understand why she is so revered, as I found her writing to be boring, self-important, and self-aggrandizing.
Apparently, she was part of the New Journalism literary trend in the 1960s and 1970s. I didn't like any of the other authors that I am aware of in this trend. Interesting.
OVERALL REVIEW: 3.0 stars
Writing: 2.5 stars
Joan's writing is just not for me. It is the lack of description, repetition, and sparseness. She writes like a journalist, and I don't read books for that - I read the newspaper.
Additionally, the place-dropping, name-dropping, and event-dropping were tedious and overdone. For me, I didn't have a clue who these people were, so it was unnecessary.
Narration: 3.0 stars
The narration was not done by Joan, which is what I prefer.
I felt that the narration was emotionless and flat, considering the subject matter of death and grief.
Character development: 3.0 stars
The main characters are Joan (the author), John (her husband), and Quintana (her daughter).
The secondary characters are Gerry (Quintana's husband), friends and family of the Didion/Dunn family, and the medical professionals.
The tertiary character is death and grief.
There is a huge cast of "famous" friends, but I really didn't know who they all were and really didn't care.
The character development was poor. The three main characters seemed shallow, boring, and self-important.
Memorable: 3.0 stars
What I remember from this book is that money doesn't buy happiness. Also, death and grief affect everyone in different ways. Joan wrote this book as a way to process her personal grief, but her writing about it didn't work for me.
Entertaining/Educational: 2.5 stars
There really wasn't anything entertaining or educational.
Book cover: 3.0 stars
Spare and boring like the book.
Book title: 4.0 stars
The best part of the book.
Lukewarm recommend
Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) borrow: audiobook
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
5 hours, 5 minutes
HughBridge
Release date: 9/30/2005
INFORMATIONAL LINKS
Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL)
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Death, grief, medical content, medical trauma, mental illness.
Happy reading,
Dorothea 💜
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