Didion, Joan

This volume could be read in one sitting or one vignette at a time, as Didion’s perceptive voice connects the essays beautifully, but each one can stand equally well on its own terms. For both fans of Didion and those new to her work entirely, this collection is an essential investment.

This is important reading for today, but it is essential reading for the future.

"You sit down to dinner, and life as you know it ends," Didion repeats in her hypnotic memoir about her life before and after the death of her husband, author John Gregory Dunne...

While more rambling and repetitive than her earlier work, Blue Nights reveals flashes of Didion's brilliant style as she conveys the terrible pain of losing a child. Kimberly Farr reads with a warmth and clarity that avoids sentimentality. This book will appeal to Didion's fans and to those coping with the loss of a loved one. ["This worthwhile mediation on parenting and aging by a succinct writer...is well worth the emotional toll," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Knopf hc, LJ 9/15/11; see Major Audio Releases, LJ 9/15/11.—Ed.]

In December 2003, Didion's husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, died of a heart attack while only daughter Quintana Roo lay hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia that had led to septic shock...