Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" on the Stage

I personally think that Ms. Didion is "beating a dead horse" in attempting to
rehash over and over again her grief overf the deaths of her daughter and husband.

Why can't she let go?

Are these acts ( book publication and evetual stage production ), forms of psychic therapy for her?

Thanks for posting the article, Miller. I read it earlier today and thought of posting it here too.

I don't know this book - do you? It sounds interesting.

I thought the communication between the two women was extremely odd, though perhaps that's just the way the writer perceived it. What kind of artistic merger will there be if they don't communicate directly? Relying on mind-reading will slow things down a bit.

I'm in the process of reading the book. At the moment, I'm of the opinion , based on Ms Didion's book, that the wealthy and influential cope with grief in a way totally foreign to the average American.

I'll have to admit that Ms. Didion certainly has an excellent memory for a 71 year women.

For a writer, all is grist for the mill. I think she's done her grieving, but she doesn't feel that she's managed to convey the complexity of grief.

We're not a society that is accustomed to untimely death.

By timely, I think you mean the death of her daughter. Her husbands health problems were apparently ongoing for many years. as a matter of fact, her husband frequently told her, he thought he was dying.

So, his death should never have been a surprise.

I'm surprised that the hospitals that treated her daughter in NY and LA won't sue, based on some of the episodes rehashed in the book.

Makes you wonder.