Blue Nights by Joan Didion | Book Talk
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
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Thank you for this thoughtful discussion.
A frank and thoughtful conversation, thank you. I am more interested in reading joan Didion now.
Thank you. I hope you enjoy her work.
I haven't read any Joan Didion yet but we do have The Year of Magical Thinking and Daniel really enjoyed it, so I will start with that one. I have an object to remind me of my grandparents and like you it doesn't bring me negative feelings but is just something lovely to remember them by. I also understand the guilt of feeling like you didn't appreciate a certain moment properly though but for me it's not connected to any objects.
Wonderful! I also loved that mementos section. Have you read her essay collections yet? It’s so clear how Didion both resists and invites how life gets so much out of her. My favorite collection of her’s is The White Album.
And I think resignation is an apt summary of her aura of work, especially whether it’s good or not
I have only read Didion's essay about keeping a notebook, but I think once 2021 begins I'll buy that huge Everyman's Library edition of her collected nonfiction and dive in. Thanks Alex!
I’m a huge fan of Didion. I haven’t read everything she’s written, but I’ve come close. I bought Blue Nights, but as the mother of a daughter, my only child, I just couldn’t make myself pick it up. The subject would be difficult enough, but as explored by Didion, well...
Very understandable. I'm excited to read more of Didion's essays and fiction.
I really have to get to these books by Didion.
I think you'll love them.
One of my least favorite interviewer moments ever--from Terry Gross of Fresh Air, who I admire very much and have listened to for decades--was when Didion was on Fresh Air talking about Year of, which was published very soon after the death of Quintana, and Gross was pressing her about her non religious beliefs re coping with such profound double losses and Didion pointedly, finally, said she wanted to move away from that topic. One thing I appreciated about both memoirs is that Didion isn't pretending to "walk us through" or "show us how" to get past grief. She's sharing her experience, laying it out for us, and it's quite something to behold. I think when we share these losses with others who have experienced similar losses there's a certain comfort in that shared experience, tantamount to listening to moving music or reading poignant poetry while grieving. That acknowledgement aids us. The knowledge of the shared experience is appreciated but I don't think it's any kind of panacea to grief itself. Thanks for the very fine video!
I agree completely. I wish we allowed ourselves to discuss loss and grief openly more often.
I read both of them! Amazing!
The Year of Magical Thinking May appear on a tag I was generously tagged to do (😉) but I will admit to being afraid of this one. I was always perplexed by how she talked about Quintana in YOMT, in a way that felt somewhat removed and I couldn’t figure out if it was because she was compartmentalizing the traumas of the loss of her husband while her daughter was in the hospital, severely ill. So I’m also curious to see if that distance is explained more. From your description, that seems to be the case. Thank you for raising this again because she is a treasure as a writer and I will eventually get to it, I’m sure.
Thanks Sarah. I hadn’t noticed what you mention regarding the distant way she discusses her daughter, so thanks for pointing it out. I’ll have to cogitate on that!
I have yet to read Joan Didion, but both these books sound like I'd appreciate them. I was interested to hear your thoughts on the topics raised and how they affected you throughout your reading. Many thanks for sharing them.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy her work when you get around to reading it.
Great vid, I have not come in contact with Didion before. This sounds kinda rough brother
It certainly is, which is why I wouldn’t go telling every person I meet to read it. Didion’s essays are supposed to be brilliant, though, and while they sound like they also deal with serious topics (politics, culture, etc), they aren’t difficult in the way this and The Year of Magical Thinking are. Thanks Noah!
Thank you. This was a profound discussion.
Thank you!