The Year of Magical Thinking

Summary

A spare, unflinching memoir tracing the year following the sudden death of Didion's husband, John Gregory Dunne, while their daughter lay critically ill in a hospital. Didion examines her own irrational efforts to undo the loss, applying the analytic precision of a reporter to the disorienting interior landscape of grief. The book established a new template for the literature of mourning and remains widely cited as a defining work of contemporary nonfiction.