| The Year of Magical Thinking | |
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1st edition |
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| Author(s) | Joan Didion |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Memoir |
| Publisher | Knopf |
| Publication date | 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-4000-4314-X |
| OCLC Number | 58563131 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 B 22 |
| LC Classification | PS3554.I33 Z63 2005 |
The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), by Joan Didion (b. 1934), is an account of the year following the death of the author's husband John Gregory Dunne (1932–2003). Published by Knopf in October 2005, the book was immediately acclaimed as a classic in the genre of mourning literature. It won the National Book Award in November 2005 and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award[1] as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography.[2]
Contents |
The book recounts Didion's experiences of grief after Dunne's 2003 death of a cardiac arrest in their New York apartment. Days before his death, their daughter Quintana Roo Dunne Michael was hospitalized in New York with pneumonia which developed into septic shock; she was still unconscious when her father died. During 2004 Quintana was again hospitalized after a collapse and bleeding in her brain.
The narrative structure of the book follows Didion's re-living and re-analysis of her husband's death throughout the year following it, in addition to caring for Quintana. With each replay of the event, the focus on certain emotional and physical aspects of the experience shifts. Didion also incorporates medical and psychological research on grief and illness into the book.
The title of the book refers to magical thinking in the anthropological sense, thinking that if a person hopes for something enough or performs the right actions that an unavoidable event can be averted. Didion reports many instances of her own magical thinking, particularly the story in which she cannot give away Dunne's shoes, as he would need them when he returned.[3] The experience of insanity or derangement that is part of grief is a major theme, about which Didion was unable to find a great deal of existing literature.[4]
Didion applies the iconic reportorial detachment for which she is known to her own experience of grieving; there are few expressions of raw emotion. Through observation and analysis of changes in her own behavior and abilities, she indirectly expresses the toll her grief is taking. She is haunted by questions concerning the medical details of her husband's death, the possibility that he sensed it in advance, and how she might have made his remaining time more meaningful. Fleeting memories of events and persistent snippets of past conversations with John take on a new significance. Her daughter's continuing health problems and hospitalizations further compound and interrupt the natural course of grief.
Didion wrote The Year of Magical Thinking between October 4, 2004 and December 31 the same year, completing it a year and a day after Dunne died.[5] Notes she made during Quintana's hospitalisations became part of the book.[6] Quintana Roo Dunne Michael died of pancreatitis on August 26, 2005 before the publication of the book, but Didion told the press that she would not revise the manuscript.[7]
On March 29, 2007, Didion's adaptation of her book for Broadway, directed by David Hare, opened with Vanessa Redgrave as the sole cast member. The play expands upon the memoir by dealing with Quintana's death. Redgrave reprised her role to largely positive reviews at London's National Theatre. This production is set to tour the world, dates already announced include Salzburg, Bath and Cheltenham.[8] The play was also performed in the Sydney Theatre Company's 2008 season, starring Robyn Nevin and directed by Cate Blanchett.[9] The play was performed In Canada at the Belfry Theatre (2009) and at the Tarragon Theatre by Seana McKenna.[10] This production was also mounted in January 2011 as part of English Theatre's season at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. In January, 2010, the play was mounted at the Court Theater in Chicago, starring Mary Beth Fisher. Fisher won the 2010 "Jeff" (Joseph Jefferson equity) Solo Performance Award for her performance. The play was mounted in April 2011 by Nimbus Theater in Minneapolis, MN, starring Barbra Berlovitz and directed by Liz Neerland [11][12]. In 2011, Fanny Ardant played a French translation of The Year of Magical Thinking in Théâtre de l'Atelier, Paris.
On October 26, 2009, Vanessa Redgrave reprises her role at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in NYC.
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