What readers think of The Year of Magical Thinking, plus links to write your own review.

Thought provoking and moving.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is an excellent read. It really describes the twisted paths, which the survivor takes with the sudden lost of one's spouse. I highly recommend this book.

I've experienced the death of my loved ones too but i was never able to put the feelings i had nor to describe the grief into words, yet Joan managed brilliantly to capture i wouldn't say all the helplessness which take over everything even in expressing what is that we think or feel when faced with death suddenly words are no longer able to meet the weight of what is going in one's mind and are unable to capture the evolution of it in time ! I really lived with every word of every line of this book. Thank you Joan, and I'm very sorry for your loss.

If you haven't read it, I urge you to get a copy of Joan Didion's magical account of her life and its abrupt change when her husband, writer, John Gregory Dunne, passed away...She chronicles a year and a day, in amazingly wonderful word pictures, that I believe is important to all of us. As humans, one thing is certain once we survive the birth canal - we'll die one day. The book is not morbid by any means. An accomplished writer herself, Ms. Didion manages to edify, entertain, and engage the reader at once; so much so it's hard to tear oneself away.

I was given the CD (4 in the case) as a gift by my parents, last year - a few months after the sudden death of my husband. I wasn't ready to hear it at that time. My heart was still too tender, and from what I heard of the first two chapters - the author's experience mirrored my own, down to emotions, thoughts (verbatim, mind you!), and of course, the questions. But I knew I'd find my way back to it in the fullness of time. And when I tell you that I devoured those CDs, please believe me! It is read beautifully, by award winning, Barbara Caruso. I became so engrossed by the details, the literary references (Ms. Didion is an exquisite literary source and drove me to "Google" and other resources that enabled me to thoroughly appreciate the nuances and augment the contexts). I had a field day discovering quotes from plays, movies and books I haven't seen or read (that are now on my "must have" list), and philosophers, psychologists...all from the extensive research Didion immersed herself in while going through the grieving process. Her book was a source of confirmation and yet another conduit through which I am now realizing my own heart's healing. (and I thought I was doing pretty well through my spiritual convictions and Faith). "The Year of Magical Thinking" helped accelerate my progress.

I shall now get the hard copy...and read it cover to cover. I shall savor it, turning the pages as I anticipate the morsels of wisdom born of rich life experiences; the good, bad and horrific. And I am moved to gather up my notes to myself, and put them in order to chronicle my own passage from married 31 years to widow, suddenly, when things were going so well and life was high in the clouds. Ms. Didion inspired me, lit a fire in my soul. I can say of a surety that I have lived a MIRACLE year from the day my husband died, May 8, 2010, to this day...strange as that may seem. It's nothing but the truth.

A deeply moving insightful representation of self in a mutilated world.

My husband gave me this book last summer. I read it but found it somewhat depressing. In September, my husband of 40 years died suddenly of a heart attack. Six months later I thought of Ms Didion' book. I searched my book shelves until I found it. The second time I read it it immediately hit home. I was going through everything she described in her book, all of the confusion, pain, loneliness and feelings of helplessness. I began highlighting passages and have reread them many times. This book gives permission to others to grieve in their own way without feeling they have to fit into a mold. This book would be an excellent gift to someone who has lost a spouse.

Any death diminishes all of us, John Donne implies. The death of Ms.Didion's husband is something to grieve for; yet we give thanks for the memoir it produced. This story is not a tale of grief alone, but of an intense love that resonates in any one who has ever truly loved.


Her allusions to other works, including C.S.Lewis and even "etiquette" books about grieving, allow the reader to see how Didion began to cope with her tragedy. She admits that she, as many of us, read to discover answers to the vicissitudes of life.


Her self-stated goal of finishing the book before a complete year elapsed further reflects her connection to her husband and ailing daughter. If a year passed,the circle of the process could not be complete. Circles are a trope in the memoir that allows the reader to experience the confusion that Didion endured as she tried to make sense of the insensible.


Having heard her read from the book this past November, concretized the reality of this gifted woman's grief. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this book when my husband was still alive. I remember telling him that I couldn't quite grasp how a woman could fantasize that her dead husband is going to appear one day. I never made it all the way through. It was almost too much for me at the time. I couldn't quite imagine being a widow with a very sick daughter.
Then my husband died in January 2009. When I picked up the book again, I was amazed at how I was identifying with her plight. My husband also died suddenly at home and I had to call the paramedics. And like Didion, I too feel that my husband sensed that he was dying. So some of it did start to make sense to me. But Didion's lack of faith in a hereafter cast a pall over the story. For me, without this belief, death is way too final, way too sad.

I was interested to read her accounts of the ordeal with her daughter especially when Didion had to tell her over and over that her dad had died. My heart broke for them both. But the endless medical details were way too much information for me. How many people, other than medical personnel, need to know all of this?

I finally finished the book and have donated it. I said to myself that never again did I want to suffer with Didion. Too overwhelming. But then I suppose she accomplished her goal. She wanted to show just how unbelievably hard life can be.