Publisher: Knopf
Authors: Joan Didion
List Price: $23.95
Amazon Price: $14.37
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Reviews:
Summary: more than one more day
Though not written in real-time, it may as well have been. The writing was done close enough to the event(s) that there might not have been perspective on what Didion was going through w/her husband's death and daughter's illness. BUT - that is somewhat the point: At the time of grief, there is no perspective. She wrote what she was going through *then* and what she was feeling *then*. I find that fairly admirable. To go back and rethink her grief and feelings and put them into another context would have been dishonest.
Does she draw on her's and her husband's previous work? Sure. Does she tie it in nicely to how her past and present have collided? Absolutely.
Didion literally relates her year (ok, year and one day), so I have to say I'm amazed at some of the reviews. Who cares where she ate lunch, stayed at, flew to or knew? It was her experience. Call it namedropping et al, the story is hers and she makes no assumptions that this is how everyone does or should deal w/loss.
Who cares if her daughter was adopted or not - does that change her being a mother? None of it discounts her take at her grief.
This is a fairly quick read. It answers no question - but I'm sure could give insight to grief in others and it shows how one can and does go on, as we all must.
Summary: Death is the universal leveler
I am amazed at the reaction to death by people of privilege. Like Leona Helmsley's infamous observation that "taxes are for the little people", Joan Didion reflects the same fabulistic sentiment about death. How do they arrive at this peculiar notion? Doesn't it speak ironic volumes that her husband's last thought on this earth was to worry that he might have drunk a blended scotch followed by a single malt?
Summary: A Stong Woman is Hard to Find
Admirable female heroines are as rare as hen's teeth so when I come across one I get quite giddy with glee. Joan Didion lives through just about all that life can dish out to someone who is not actually the victim, and she does so with a stoic humanity and grudging bravery that are riveting to this reader. I particularly like the way she takes on the medical establishment, and the rare but piercingly funny bon mots planted here and there throughout the book.
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