Sunday, June 11, 2006


One journey's end....

I just finished reading The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion's compelling account of the year following her husband's sudden death. When I began the book, I was so captivated, I couldn't put it down. Then, as I got to the half-way point, I started to get anxious about finishing it. So, I only allowed myself to read ten pages at a time. Didion is so brutal with her demand for honesty, so willing to explore frightening places in the psyche. Reading it was something like watching one perform surgery on the soul. Last night, as I read the final few pages, the part where the author confesses she doesn't want to stop writing, I realized how impossible it is to contain loss. Reading aout her loss offered some comfort. Did I think that by reading about her grief, I'd be preparing for the inevitable losses in my life? It is a mystery.

2 Comments:

Blogger Annie said...

Janie, Thanks for visiting my blog. To answer your question, yes I've already started working on my garden. It will be a many year in progress; I'm in the fourth year now.

I read the first chapter of Joan Didion's book in the New York Times Book Section on-line and made a note to myself to read the whole thing. She is such a compelling writer. I know that reading it will cause me to search my own soul as she is searching hers - and I know that might be daunting. But I trust that she will hold my hand as I go along on the journey with her.

9:57 AM  
Blogger Jane (Hollinger) Mikoni said...

Strange how life prepares us for coming events. Less than four months after finishing the Didion book, The Year of Magical Thinking,my husband died. It was a shock, completely unexpected and I reacted the same way Didion did--tried to make bargains, lived in disbelief, tried to console myself, etc. I even stopped writing on this blog for a couple of years and have started a new one at http://amusingnotes.blogspot.com/

I hope you'll join me as I write about stories of our lives.

7:05 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home