The average user rating for this Book is 8.4 out of 10 (based on 15 Votes).
John V gave it a10: She's not dropping names. Those are the people in her life. Great book!
stuart s gave it a5: uhm i dont see waht all the fuss is about there are parts that are interesting but she constantly drops names and i could barely finish it due to that fact
lloyd r gave it a9: painful recollections shared about the never never land.
Robert L gave it an8: It's everything that those who have praised it say it is. But GOD she drops names.
carrie w gave it a10: I absolutely love this book, it's one that you can't pull away from. Since I have never been around a person in mourning and am lucky anough to have never suffered a loss myself, it was very touching and intersting to learn of every detail that accompanies a loss. Great book.
megan B gave it a10: I couldn't put it down! I lost my mother when I was 12 which confused me and made me weak. Joan Didion whats about what I also went through and I finally truly know, that I am not alone. The book was beautifully crafted and brutaly honest. I reccomend it to everyone if you have been touched by dealths sting or not.
Chris gave it a10: I was given the book by "our" best friends, JIm & Barb. I lost my best friend & husband Frank on 5/17/05. I found Joan Didion verbalised feelings that I have been afraid to talk about because I was fearful that people would think I had lost my mind. Thank you for sharing your pain with all of us!
jez a gave it a7: Joan Didion gives us a sharp account of her grief. But her almost throw-away remarks about Malibu, trips to Paris and high-achieving friends give us a tantalising peak into the life of a successful writer. These flashbacks to happier times give an aspirational, almost magazine-like, gloss to the agonised accounts of Didion's latter year of magical thinking - a strong and unnerving contrast. Looking at photos of Didion in her trademark oversized sunglasses is to gaze at an uncanny mirror image of Anna Wintour, the black-bobbed editor of Vogue, which Didion wrote for with a style as clipped and cold as the ice-maiden Wintour. And that's what makes the book such a moving but uneasy read: the starkness of prose set against muted and oblique references to glamour. We are moved by her pain, but bloated by a super-rich cocktail where the ugliness of death mingles with the life-affirming beauty of successful higher life. Didion's cut-glass prose and subject matter contrasts the sumptuous imargery evoked by the material reference points she continually lays on the page. black s alomst unnervung seeing images
Bruce M gave it a10: An extraordinary description of the physical and emotional aspects of grief and loss. Joan Didion has written many things that have held my attention and given me insigfht into matters that I felt but failed to articulate. That gift is manifest in "The Year of Magical Thinking."
Judy V gave it a10: I, too, lost my husband very suddenly-in February, 2005. I have found nothing-absolutely nothing-that has allowed me to find the meaning of grief and mourning more than this piece of writing. Having seen two therapists, a minister, and a spiritual counselor, having participated in an excellent grief support group, having been assigned a "special friend", having my once very strong faith challenged, and having read over 20 books regarding the passing of a loved one, nothing has touched me as poignantly as this book. Nothing and no one else has even come close to describing the depth of despair, the ongoing sense of "cognitive deficit", the intense vacuum of loneliness, and the total loss of hopes and dreams. While I don't know Joan Didion in a personal sense, she has allowed me to know her as a friend-in-grief. May there be some redemption and some good come from the passing of two extraordinary men - her John and my David.
Pat M gave it a10: The Year Of Magical Thinking is a breathtakingly powerful account of the breavement process, written in Didion's perfect prose. By tackling this generally taboo topic in American society, she has done us all a favor and given us a pricelss gift.
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