Originally posted on The Whiskey Girl Diaries:
This memoir following Didion’s journey through grief and loss was a difficult read for me. I lost my dear friend Paul when I was seventeen and went on a similar emotional journey to the author. This book came so highly recommended that I thought I could easily read it in a day or two, but it took me nearly two weeks. In the year following her husband’s sudden death, Didion also nearly loses her daughter Quintana to a neurological trauma. This same daughter was in the ICU on the Upper West Side when Didion’s husband died, and she had to wait until her daughter was conscious to relay the news. Eventually, Quintana recovers, but after many near misses with her health and treatment. The narrative of the story alone would show the reader the scope of Didion’s trauma and pain, but the writing style serves the narrative well in that it amplified the pain of a widow and suffering mother. Didion repeats one phrase over and over throughout…