The Year of Magical Thinking
Added 2022-01-11 19:41:56 +0000 UTCCW: Death. I read a Goodreads review of The Year of Magical Thinking, written by someone who hated it. They were irritated at Joan Didion's habit of continually saying "I called so-and-so fabulous person", or "we had dinner with so-and-so illusionary of their field". Non-stop name-dropping. But, to me, that seemed like the point of the book. One, knowing all these important, powerful and influential people could not do anything to save her husband (there's a passage in the book about how all of her peers are the types to have incredible rolodexes and to think there's a way to manage any crisis, but that's an illusion), and two, I have no idea who any of those important people were. They were once famous writers, and directors and Hollywood producers, but now nobody knows their names.
