As I’m reading the first few pages of TYOMT again, I’m struck at how similar the process is: “In the midst of life we are in death.” Not just some awesome Smiths lyrics… but a common graveside prayer-and the rest? “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Still looking for clues. But, you get me to actually SAY the words and I’m using the ol’ ‘Maurice has passed’, ‘Maurice is gone’, anything but the ‘D’ word. Hell, I can put it in a damn book review. I can be matter-of-fact about it via keyboard. I’m remembering in distorted ways… did that really happen or is my head just trying to make me believe… am I replaying the events because I’m looking for clues? See, because now I’m either going crazy or I’m seeing the signs. Is it something that can actually be described or do you need to experience to fully get it? Talk to me. So, here’s an enigma: Can cynics really believe in magical thinking? What is magical thinking anyway? I mean… yeah, I’ve read the Psychology Today articles, I’ve gone to. I did end up reading it then… and I thanked Maurice time and again for giving me such a gift. This was 5 years ago and I just recently found it in the back of the bookshelf. Buck up, Kim… read the damn thing already. Must I relive the college debacle? I can’t just NOT read it, because he WILL grill me on it. I winced, like I usually did when receiving a book from him. Strike Three (?): Maurice bought this for me a few Christmases ago. Wait, you want to add Jessica Savitch to the list? AIt just wasn’t happening. My Didion backlash was further proven when Up Close and Personal came out. That didn’t help that urge to rebel that goes along with college either. ![]() I didn’t enjoy being told, essay-like, how I should go about writing. I think it began in college…being forced to read Why I Write and On Keeping a Notebook. Strike Two: I've never been much of a fan of Joan Didion. Which camera should I look into when I break down again? Strike one against me. I’m the one that views the whole process of death-the telling, the grieving, the service of any kind, the ’after’- as playing out like I’m in a soap opera bubble. I’m the one that says ’Seriously?’ when being told of some tragic event-like someone would actually make up the horrific thing. ![]() about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself." This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. 'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.'įrom one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |