From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric
honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet
universal experience: a portrait of a marriage--and a life, in good
times and bad--that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a
husband or wife or child.
"Thrilling . . . a living, sharp, memorable book. . . . An exact,
candid, and penetrating account of
personal terror and bereavement. . . . Sometimes quite funny
because it dares to tell the truth."
-Robert Pinsky, The New York Times Book Review
The introduction, discussion questions, suggestions for further
reading, and author biography that follow are designed to enhance
your group's discussion of Joan Didion's powerful, National Book
Award-winning memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking.
Joan Didion was born in California and lives in New York City. She
is the author of five novels and seven previous books of
nonfiction.
Joan Didion''s Where I Was From, Political Fictions, The Last
Thing He Wanted, After Henry, Miami, Democracy, Salvador, A Book of
Common Prayer, and Run River are available in Vintage
paperback.
Joan Didion was born in California and lives in New York City. She
is the author of five novels and seven previous books of
nonfiction.
Joan Didion''s
Where I Was From, Political Fictions, The Last
Thing He Wanted, After Henry, Miami, Democracy, Salvador, A Book of
Common Prayer, and
Run River are available in Vintage
paperback.
1. Consider the four sentences in italics that begin chapter
one. What did you think when you read them for the first time? What
do you think now?
2. In particular, address "The question of self-pity." [p. 3].
Does Didion pity herself? In what ways does she indulge that
impulse, and in what ways does she deny it?
3. Read the Judges' Citation for the National Book Award, below.
Why do you suppose they deemed the book a masterpiece of
investigative journalism?
"The Year of Magical Thinking is a masterpiece in two
genres: memoir and investigative journalism. The subject of the
memoir is the year after the sudden death of the writer's husband.
The target of the investigation, though, is the nature of folly and
time. The writer attends to details, assembles a chronology, and
asks hard questions of the
witnesses, most notably herself. But she imagines that the story
she tells can be revised, the world righted, her husband returned,
alive. What she offers is an unflinching journey into intimacy and
grief."
-The Judges Citation for the 2005 National Book Award for
Nonfiction
4. Discuss the notion of "magical thinking." Have you ever
experienced anything like this, after a loss or some other
life-changing occurrence? How did it help, or hinder, your
healing?
5. Do you think Didion's "year of magical thinking" ended after
one year, or did it likely continue?
6. Consider the tone Didion uses throughout the book, one of
relatively cool detachment. Clearly she is in mourning, and yet her
anguish is quite muted. How did this detached tone affect your
reading experience?
7. How does Didion use humor? To express her grief, to deflect
it, or for another purpose entirely?
8. Over the course of the book, Didion excerpts a variety of
poems. Which resonated for you most deeply, and why?
9. To Didion, there is a clear distinction between grief and
mourning. What differences do you see between the two?
10. One word critics have used again and again in describing
this book is "exhilarating." Did you find it to be so? Why, or why
not?
11. Discuss Didion's repetition of sentences like "For once in
your life just let it go" [pp. 141,174]; "We call it the
widowmaker" [pp. 157, 203, 207]; "I tell you that I shall not live
two days" [pp. 26, 80, 112, 153, 207]; and "Life changes in the
instant." [pp. 3, 77, 89]. What purpose does the repetition serve?
How did your understanding of her grief change each time you reread
one of these sentences?
12. The lifestyle described in this book is quite different from
the way most people live, with glamorous friends, expensive homes,
and trips to Hawaii, Paris, South America, etc., and yet none of
that spared Didion from experiencing profound grief. Did her
seemingly privileged life color your feelings about the book at
all? Did that change after reading it?
13. At several points in the book Didion describes her need for
knowledge, whether it's from reading medical journals or grilling
the doctors at her daughter's bedside. How do you think this helped
her to cope?
14. Reread the "gilded-boy story" on pages 105-6. How would you
answer the questions it raised for Didion?
15. Is there a turning point in this book? If so, where would
you place it and why?
16. The last sentence of the book is "No eye is on the sparrow
but he did tell me that." What does this mean?
17. Didion has adapted The Year of Magical Thinking
into a Broadway play. How do you imagine its transition from page
to stage? Would you want to see the play?
18. Before The Year of Magical Thinking, had you ever
read any of Joan Didion's work? Do you see any similar themes or
motifs?
Didion chronicles the experience of losing her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, to a massive coronary, just weeks after the two of them watched as their only daughter was put into an induced coma to save her life. With honesty and passion, Didion explores this intensely personal yet universal experience.
