The Year of Magical Thinking/Didion/227 pages

"Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." Joan Didion, noted author, comes home one December evening with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, also a successful author. They have been visiting their comatose daughter who only days before fell mysteriously ill. As Joan begins to make dinner, John sits down at the table and suffers a massive and fatal heart attack. Joan begins her year of learning to cope as a widow and as a mother with a extremely ill adult child. While everyone can certainly sympathize with the author, the book is too clinical for me to relate to her plight. The book has been made into a one-woman play that recently played in St. Louis to good reviews. Possibly seeing this performed would be more satisfying.