The Year of Magical Thinking

The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) by Joan Didion. On Dec. 30, 2003, while preparing to eat dinner, Didion's husband, John Gregory Dunne, died at the table. He suffered an apparent heart attack and Didion, unprepared for the event, was at first cross with him because he had stopped talking in the middle of a sentence. This book encompasses the year after his death and tells, from the first person point of view, what grief and mourning were like for Didion. In the telling, she is both emotionally forthright and keenly analytical about her own feelings. Grade: B+