I've been meaning to read this for a number of years now and finally it found its way into my hands on a recent bookshop visit. A Waterstones bookshop opened a year or two back in the out of town shopping centre closest to me for popping in for some groceries on Saturdays, and although most welcome it's making my quick shopping trips for yoghurt and bananas considerably more expensive than before.

Didion chronicles in this memoir twelve months from the moment her husband drops dead at their kitchen table (whilst their only child was, incidentally, also lying critically ill in hospital battling sepsis). Although it's not a book I'd recommend to someone in the throes of grief, despite the circumstances Didion writes about I didn't find it a maudlin read.

Didion writes with utter honesty but never with self-pity, and her brisk matter-of-factness as she describes the most difficult of times feels insightful, brave and clear-eyed rather than sentimental (although it is a heartbreaking story). As a born story-teller who moved in some interesting circles with her writer husband, Didion's life at that time (and earlier in their marriage, which she recounts when unexpected things or places trigger memories) provided an unexpectedly interesting backdrop to this memoir on bereavement, a snapshot of a certain era in American history.

4.5 stars - I really enjoyed Didion's writing in this book, despite the difficult subject matter, and will definitely be seeking out some of her other essays and novels. ( )

Fall 2020 (October);

A meanderingly evocative and heart panging journey along the path of grief from the moment you lose the most important person (/people) in your life. I found myself recognized several times in the words that came up remembering exactly how it felt to lose my little sister, my father, my ex, my grandfather. The way grief gives and takes all these things and how your mind actually talks to you through it. ( )

l urge you not to read or listen to this memoir if you’re struggling w/ tragedy or depression, the opposite of what I expected from the title (I got it because of the title). This is about the deaths of the author’s husband & only daughter close in time to one another, & how she dealt with it. She accurately describes how we (or at least I) tend to magically think that if we just do something, a different result will occur. It can be quite superstitious but don’t you do it, too? For example, she decides if she refuses to throw out her husband’s shoes, then he’ll come back. Or if she’d only done something differently, her daughter would have lived, or could she go back and “fix” it? A good but agonizing tale. I was grateful it was short. Vanessa Redgrave nailed the narration. ( )

Fab read. Great,concise verbage that relays complex emotions. ( )