The Year of Living Magically, Joan Didion, 2005
January 2026
This is a celebrated book by a celebrated author. It appeared in the NY Times’ (or possibly that Atlantic’s) 100 Best books of the (1st Quarter) of the 21st Century, and was one of a handful of books (Station Eleven is another) that I decided to read this year as a consequence of seeing it there.
The book is a memoir of a year in Didion’s life following the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. It is, essentially, a study of profound grief, and the way in which Didion (and perhaps others) try to come to grips with it. During this period, her daughter, Quintanna, was in and out of hospital ICUs, exacerbating Didion’s difficulties. As the title suggests, Didion focuses on her disordered thinking, documenting ‘magical’ beliefs that her husband would come back to her, that discarding his effects would prevent his return, that she could have done things differently and thus avoided his (medically predictable) death.
The book is intense, and jumps around to different moments in time. Unlike other things I’ve read by Didion, I don’t find her use of language compelling. Possibly it would repay study of the structure, if one is writing a memoir, but for my purposes it does not offer a lot. Although I can’t say that I’m happy I’ve read it, due to the difficult subject matter, it was worthwhile, and I think will make me more sensitive to the ways in which grief can manifest itself.
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