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What Members Thought
The Year of Magical Thinking didn't live up to the hype. This memoir about Didion's emotions and feelings in the year after her husband's death just didn't resonate with me the way it seems to with others.
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NOTE: I listened to the audio version of this book.
I have been wanting to read this for a long time, but never got around to it, so I decided to listen to it, which may have been a mistake. It's written in sort of a stream of consciousness style, which can be very hard to follow if you're not paying really close attention. I'd stop listening for 15 seconds and suddenly be wondering "how did she get THERE?". I know everyone loves Joan Didion and loves this book but it just didn't do it for me. ...more
I have been wanting to read this for a long time, but never got around to it, so I decided to listen to it, which may have been a mistake. It's written in sort of a stream of consciousness style, which can be very hard to follow if you're not paying really close attention. I'd stop listening for 15 seconds and suddenly be wondering "how did she get THERE?". I know everyone loves Joan Didion and loves this book but it just didn't do it for me. ...more
i have loved didion forever, as a california transplant in new york, but this did me in as a psych student as well. the entire book is about dealing with grief, dealing with death and mortality and the "bad hand" that you sometimes get dealt. And how you can't predict anything, how life is something that happens, whether you want it to or not.
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Read this with Seb Knowles, which probably added to the excitement of having the opportunity to read it, because he's amazing. However, the book itself is an amazing case study on memory and grief. Highly recommended. Once again, my marginalia is out of control, but let me know if you want to borrow, because I want everyone to read it.
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So much more I could say about this book than I have time to at the moment, but for now I'll just say -- Wow. This book affected me more than any I've read in a long, long time. Didion's writing is beautiful. Be careful though, it could churn up some pretty deep emotions. Not for the faint of heart!
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True story about a woman who lost her husband, and had to deal with her only child being in the hospital at the same time. This book really showed what a widower goes through thier first year alone. I read this and P.S. I Love You around the same time, and they both broke my heart.
There were moments in this book that took my breath away, but my overall impression was of wanting more. In some of her novels, Joan Didion's investigatory writing style is perfection, but in this book, it was a distraction. Overall a moving reflection on a death.
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I feel like I'll go back to this book several times over the course of my life.
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May 03, 2007
Jennifer Medeiros
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Jul 25, 2011
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Nov 28, 2011
Beth
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May 21, 2013
Ashley
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Jan 02, 2014
Katy
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Jan 05, 2014
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Jun 24, 2014
Alison
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Feb 26, 2016
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Oct 29, 2016
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Jan 26, 2018
Sharon
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