Emi B. (wantonvolunteer) - , reviewed on 6/5/2013 + 84 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Joan Didion is an amazing writer, I think this is the first book of hers I've read but I've loved her work in the New Yorker and Harpers. I also love the cover of this book, the letters that make up her dead husband's name stand out in blue from the stark black font of the rest of the letters in the author's name and title, as proper a tribute as it is creative.

I appreciate the glimpse of Didion's marriage with John Dunne, their adoption of daughter Quintana, and the awful holiday season of 2003 when her husband died while their only child was in a coma. Now I'm wanting to read more about all three of their lives.

..."given that grief remained the most general of afflictions its literature seemed remarkably spare." Even so, Didion gives an excellent overview of the literature relating to grief; encompassing the physical, emotional, psychological, rational and irrational aspects of the process. I found it fascinating that Didion praises Emily Post's 1922 etiquette guide for the best advice and information out there today.

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