BOOKS: The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion is known for her keen sense of observation and a journalistic style that lays things bare through meticulous description. When her husband of nearly four decades died quite suddenly during the holidays of 2003, she applied that sense of observation to her own grief over the year that followed. In so doing, her book The Year of Magical Thinking manages to be utterly subjective and utterly objective at the same time by describing such a personal experience in such a detached and yet immersive way. She makes no effort to play violins nor conjure sympathy. The camera rolls documentary style with no need of musical score to tug your heartstrings as the events and the experiences speak for themselves. She opens a window to her own mind as dates and places trigger unexpected cascades of associations, as she finds herself unable to part with certain things (her husband’s shoes or his alarm clock), and as she relentlessly rehashes how and when he died – what was the exact moment? what was the precise cause? – looking for an elusive crack in the inevitability. As the calendar inexorably moves forward, each day brings memories of what she and John were doing on that day the year before, until she comes to the day when the year ago did not contain John. It is a remarkably candid portrait of grief and loss, and of the life and marriage that was lost, as well as a warning reminder that everything can change in an instant.