The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion (1934-2021) was an American author and journalist. Born in Sacramento, California, Didion was consumed with reading and writing from an early age. Her first published piece was a first prize-winning essay for Vogue, where she later worked for seven years. Didion gained acclaim in the 1960s and 70s, writing about celebrities and counterculture. In 1991, Didion wrote a piece on the Central Park Five, asserting that they had been wrongfully convicted. Didion’s work was hailed as groundbreaking and introspective by critics. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN Center USA and a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.

In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion presents herself as a woman who clings to rationality and research when faced with grief and the uncertainties of her daughter’s illness. As someone who has spent her life writing, she attempts to exert control over stressful situations by reading, questioning, and reflecting, as when she reads various medical books to learn more about her daughter’s condition. However, her tendency towards “magical thinking” also speaks to her habits as a writer: In attempting to “rewrite” the story of her husband’s death and leave open the possibility of his return, Didion tries to create an alternative