The Year of Magical Thinking

I've been wanting to read Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking since it came out in 2005. I saw her give a reading from it the year it came out with my parents and roommate at the time. We were all in tears by the end. The Year of Magical Thinking chronicles the year following the death of Joan's husband, writer John Gregory Dunne. They were together for 40 years, rarely apart. Shortly after the publication of the book, Joan and John's one and only daughter, Quintana, died as well.

One of the anecdotes from the book Joan shares with Charlie Rose is that while she never spoke about death, John, a true Irishman, was obsessed with it. He was constantly rewriting his list of friends to speak at his funeral, to reflect who he was currently on good terms with.

While fear of death is common, I would argue that this fear is particularly common among only children. Something about Joan's plight seems particularly possible in my own life, and thus I'm hesitant to start reading it, despite knowing how much I'll enjoy it. I highly recommend Slouching Towards Bethlehem, an early collection of essays.