#3: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Preface:
This book made me cry. A lot. In the following places: the work commute, the lunch break, the B63 bus, McDonald’s (leave me alone), and my apartment. If you’re looking for a solid session of weeping, this is the story for you.
Thoughts:
Over the last few months, I had heard over and over again that if you are looking to read more female writers, you start with Joan Didion. It’s here that I’ll wholeheartly agree. Finally buying The Year of Magical Thinking a couple of weeks ago, I nonchalantly walked out of the store with what I thought was a book about a fantastic, whimsical love. The world “magical” has a certain connotation in my mind, one that leads to a sense of elation. Clearly, I had not done my homework. In Didion’s world, The Year of Magical Thinking happened after the sudden death of her husband (whom she did fantastically and whimsically love)during an ordinary dinner at their home, while her daughter was being treated in Intensive Care. A life can change in an instant, but it appears that one’s writing doesn’t have to. Didion’s, in what is my only experience with her thus far, hit a nerve with me. It made feel as though I had loved the people she loved, travelled where she travelled, and wrote what she wrote.
I’ve worked in the medical field for a few years now and still find myself thinking that I really don’t know anything. One can research medical issues and feel better, but as Didion so eloquently expresses, there is only so much information can cure. Experiences such as hers, death and illness of loved ones, are more telling of what happens in one’s life and the amount of strength (how ever changing and how ever meaningful that is) they can show.
Finally, I’ll just mention that I can see so much of what I want in Didion’s writing. Not often do I read sentences and think “That’s it! That’s what I want to read all the time!” Her prose is both smart and welcoming; it did not make me as a lowly little reader with nothing to offer. Instead, I was able to merge my own experiences with hers. Every couple of chapters I would look to the back cover in order to see (again) the portrait of her family. It only brought about more curiosity. So in the months to come, I’ll continue with my wikipedia searches about her and hope to read a little more.
Yes, yes, yes! Now read Slouching Toward Bethlehem. Then The White Album. I read Magical Thinking first, too, and then Play it As it Lays, but I think that is about the opposite way you should do it! Actually there is a Vintage Didion compendium that is beautiful and perfect, maybe that! (although i sort of hate those big Best Of’s, who wants to carry around an encyclopedia? Each book is its own choice, its own journey, blabbity blah)(but that one sure is pretty!).
