joan didion

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12-05-2008, 06:04 AM
americanlit

joan didion

has anybody read any joan didion? what are some of your favorites?
12-05-2008, 09:50 AM
Pecksie

I read "The Year of Magical Thinking" --- had great expectations about it. Unfortunately I found an annoying, name-dropping description of a married couple livin' the good life and flying back and forth for cocktails in Malibu and dinners with the rich and famous. I was expecting a chronicle of bereavement, and a tribute to her love for her dead husband. I respect Ms Didion's grief and her loss, but her book just didn't do it for me.

Haven't read anything else by her.
12-07-2008, 06:49 PM
Cailin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pecksie

I read "The Year of Magical Thinking" --- had great expectations about it. Unfortunately I found an annoying, name-dropping description of a married couple livin' the good life and flying back and forth for cocktails in Malibu and dinners with the rich and famous. I was expecting a chronicle of bereavement, and a tribute to her love for her dead husband. I respect Ms Didion's grief and her loss, but her book just didn't do it for me.

Haven't read anything else by her.

Saw a production of The Year of Magical Thinking in our theatre festival in Dublin starring Vanessa Redgrave and found it to be one of the most moving and intense theatre experiences of my life. Whether that was due to the text or Vanessa Redgrave (or the combination of the two), I don't know. For me it was more a tribute to her love for her daughter than her husband and it moved me to tears. I wonder whether it's a text that requires you have experienced bereavement of a close relative in order to truly appreciate what she is discussing?
12-08-2008, 04:34 PM
Ignatz

I found The Year of Magical Thinking very moving. Didion and her husband lived a particular kind of life and might not have been your cup of tea, but the sense of loss that she communicates and the way she tries to cope, as a hyper-educated person used to understanding and controlling everything, was moving (and recognizable to anyone who might be like that even a little bit). I thought it was a terrific book.
12-09-2008, 10:56 AM
Pecksie

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cailin

Saw a production of The Year of Magical Thinking in our theatre festival in Dublin starring Vanessa Redgrave and found it to be one of the most moving and intense theatre experiences of my life. Whether that was due to the text or Vanessa Redgrave (or the combination of the two), I don't know. For me it was more a tribute to her love for her daughter than her husband and it moved me to tears. I wonder whether it's a text that requires you have experienced bereavement of a close relative in order to truly appreciate what she is discussing?

I don't think so. I have experienced bereavement (there's hardly anyone over 30 who hasn't, BTW --- unfortunately it's not an uncommon experience) and of course I can relate to it like the next person. I would be a freak if I didn't. What I disliked about this book was that she spent more time discussing her jet-set lifestyle than the things about her husband and daughter that could have endeared them to the reader.