Thread by @balfenation

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THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
✨by Joan Didion✨

Add comments/questions below⬇️

#BalfeNationReads #BalfeNation
Inspired by #CaitríonaBalfe & #CBBookClub
1/22

‘A spare, lucid, & remarkably moving examination of the year following her husband’s sudden death…this is the story of Didion’s search for answers, for relief, & above all for the chance to change the course of events’
-Random House

Q1: ‘Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner & life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity.’

What did you think when you first read these lines of chapter one? What do you think now?

Q2: In particular, address the question of ‘self-pity’. Does Joan pity herself? In what ways does she indulge that impulse & in what ways does she deny it?

Q3: Read the Judges’ Citation for the National Book Award, below. Why do you suppose they deemed the book a masterpiece of investigative journalism?

Q4: Discuss the notion of ‘magical thinking’. Have you ever experienced anything like this, after a loss or some other life-changing occurrence? How did it help, or hinder, your healing?

Q5: Do you think Didion’s ‘year of magical thinking’ ended after one year, or did it likely continue?

Q6: Consider the tone Didion uses throughout the book, one of relatively cool detachment. Clearly she is in mourning, & yet her anguish is quite muted. How did this detached tone affect your reading experience?

Q7: How does Didion use humour? To express her grief, to deflect it, or for another purpose entirely?

Q8: Over the course of the book, Didion excerpts a variety of poems. Which resonated for you most deeply, and why?

Q9: To Didion, there is a clear distinction between grief and mourning. What differences do you see between the two?

Q10: One word critics have used again and again in describing this book is ‘exhilarating’. Did you find it to be so? Why or why not?

Q11: Discuss Didion’s repetition of sentences like ‘For once in your life just let it go’; ‘Life changes in the instant’; ‘We call it the widow maker’; & ‘I tell you that I shall not live 2 days’. How did your understanding of grief change each time you reread one of these?

Q12: The lifestyle described in the book is quite different from the way most people live, & yet none of that spared Didion from experiencing profound grief. Did her seemingly privileged life color your feelings about the book at all? Did that change after reading it?

Q13: At several points in the book Didion describes her need for knowledge, whether it’s from reading medical journals or grilling the doctors at her daughter’s bedside. How do you think this helped her to cope?

Q14: Reread the ‘gilded-boy story’ on pages 105-6. How would you answer the questions it raised for Didion?

Q15: Is there a turning point in this book? If so, where would you place it and why?

Q16: The last sentence of the book is ‘No eye is on the sparrow but he did tell me that.’ What does this mean?

Q17: Didion adapted THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING into a Broadway play. How do you imagine it’s transition from page to stage? Would you want to see the play?

Q18: Caitríona said in an interview that she re-read this book in preparation for filming S2 of Outlander, in which Claire returns to the 20th century without Jamie. Knowing this, how do you think Didion’s insight may have influenced her performance?

Most questions for this thread were taken/adapted from Penguin Random House Reader’s Guide.

More reviews/readings:
New York Times
nytimes.com/2005/10/09/boo…

Business Insider
businessinsider.com/guides/learnin…

Slate
slate.com/culture/2005/1…

The Guardian
theguardian.com/books/2016/feb…

Check out joandidion.org, recently launched by the Didion Dunne Literary Trust, for more info about Joan’s life & work

Special thanks to
@caitrionambalfe & #cbbookclub
for inspiring #BalfeNationReads & laying the foundation for this community

/end thread
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