topic Re: JOAN DIDION in Book Club

JOAN DIDION

Oznell — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 17:21:36 GMT

Anyone else here adore this author? Just finished reading, again, "The Year of Magical Thinking". The account of the year when her equally famous husband, writer John Gregory Dunne (brother of Dominick Dunne) died of a massive heart attack at the dinner table in their New York apartment.

Only days earlier, her daughter Quintana, had been struck with a mysterious pneumonia, complications, and the prospect of imminent death, the doctors said.

With her accustomed cool, Didion takes us through this harrowing time, flashing back to other, sweeter, wonderful times, when she and her husband were tossing out novels and journalism and screenplays that made her, and to some degree him, household names and forces to be reckoned with.

I like both her fiction and nonfiction, from an early novel, "Play It As It Lays", about a young married in the frenetic Southern California of the Sixties, to the essays and memoirs of "Slouching Toward Bethlehem", "After Henry", and "Where I Was From".

Lovers of California and the American West and its history, already know her for her brilliant essays on the evolution of California. Her sense of place is acute-- and she creates an almost mythic aura around the Sacramento River Valley, where generations of her family lived....

Re: JOAN DIDION

IMW — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 17:09:54 GMT

An exquisite book, great depth in discussion of grief.

I’ve read most of her work and like you I’m a fan.

Re: JOAN DIDION

Oznell — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 22:15:25 GMT

Somehow, knowing your discerning tastes in classic film, @IMW, it doesn't surprise me that you appreciate a rarefied talent like Joan Didion!

Re: JOAN DIDION

MarnieRez3 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:37:18 GMT

@Oznell She is one of my all-time favorite authors! Thank you for your great post on her outstanding body of work.
I agree..."The Year of Magical Thinking" leaves me gutted every time I read it.
I had the great fortune of being able to hear her in person on a book tour about 15 years ago. She is the most diminutive, quiet, unassuming woman...and she is almost painfully shy. She was being interviewed by a moderator and she gave really thoughtful responses to every question that was asked...but it was clear she does not like to be the center of attention.
When it was my turn to get her to sign the book I purchased, she spoke so softly I had to lean in to hear her.
Her literary voice, however, is enormous. To this day, the opening line of "The White Album" still takes my breath away: "We tell ourselves stories in order to live."

Re: JOAN DIDION

Oznell — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:57:41 GMT

Wow, @MarnieRez3, I envy you getting to see her in person. I had heard she was extremely shy and "recessive", and your first-hand account confirms that.

As much of an introvert as she seems to be, like you say she has a huge literary voice and personality. And a kind of stoicism that is evident as well. One of the revealing moments in "The Year of Magical Thinking", I thought, was when the social worker or someone at the hospital where her husband died, remarked that she was a "cool customer", even during that chaotic, shattering night of her husband's heart event and death...

Re: JOAN DIDION

MarnieRez3 — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 01:22:18 GMT

Netflix has a somewhat new documentary on her, directed on Griffin Dunne; I don't have Netflix though! ☹

Re: JOAN DIDION

Oznell — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 12:00:23 GMT

Me neither, @MarnieRez3. That would be so interesting, given that he has that family connection to her...

Re: JOAN DIDION

magicmoodz — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 21:18:46 GMT

@Oznell

Probably not a book I would have purchased at the bookstore, but I pulled "The Year of Magical Thinking" off the bookshelf at a condo we rented in Puerto Vallarta and loved it. To me the best reads are true accounts of life itself.

Thank you for jogging my memory and recommendations for some of Joan's other books.