The Year of Magical Thinking

The book recounts Didion's experiences of grief after Dunne's 2003 death. Days before his death, their daughter Quintana Roo Dunne Michael was hospitalized in New York with pneumonia, which developed into septic shock; she was still unconscious when her father died. In 2004, Quintana was again hospitalized after she fell and hit her head disembarking from a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. After learning of her father's death, she returned to Malibu, her childhood home. The book follows Didion's reliving and reanalysis of her husband's death throughout the following year, in addition to caring for Quintana. With each event replay, the focus on specific emotional and physical aspects of the experience shifts. Didion also incorporates medical and psychological research on grief and illness into the book. The title of the book refers to magical thinking in the anthropological sense, thinking that if a person hopes for something enough or performs the correct actions, then an unavoidable event can be averted. Didion reports many instances of her magical thinking, particularly the story in which she cannot give away Dunne's shoes, as he would need them when he returned. Didion applies the reportorial detachment for which she is known to her own experience of grieving; there are few expressions of raw emotion. Through observation and analysis of changes in her behavior and abilities, she indirectly expresses the toll her grief is taking. She is haunted by questions about the medical details of her husband's death, the possibility that he sensed it in advance, and how she might have made his remaining time more meaningful. Fleeting memories of events and persistent snippets of past conversations with John take on a new significance. Her daughter's continuing health problems and hospitalizations further compound and interrupt the natural course of grief. == Writing process ==

Didion wrote The Year of Magical Thinking between October 4 and December 31, 2004, completing it a year and a day after Dunne died. Quintana Roo Dunne Michael died of pancreatitis on August 26, 2005, before the book's publication, but Didion did not revise the manuscript.{{cite news ==Reception==

The New York Times Book Review praised the memoir as "not a downer. On the contrary. Though the material is literally terrible, the writing is exhilarating, and what unfolds resembles an adventure narrative." The New York Review of Books declared, "I can't imagine dying without this book." The American Prospect's mixed review found that the book read "like a Warren Report on the death of LBJ." In 2019, the book was ranked 40th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. ==Theatre adaption==

On March 29, 2007, Didion's adaptation of her book for Broadway, directed by David Hare, opened with Vanessa Redgrave as the sole cast member. The play expands upon the memoir by dealing with Quintana's death. It ran for 24 weeks at the Booth Theatre in New York City and the following year Redgrave reprised her role to largely positive reviews at London's National Theatre. This production was also mounted in January 2011 as part of English Theatre's season at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. On October 26, 2009, Redgrave reprised her performance again in a benefit production of the play at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. The play was mounted in April 2011 by Nimbus Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, starring Barbra Berlovitz and directed by Liz Neerland. In 2011, Fanny Ardant played a French translation of The Year of Magical Thinking in Théâtre de l'Atelier, Paris. The play opened in May 2015 at Teatro Español y Naves del Español in Madrid, Spain, as El Año del Pensamiento Mágico produced by Teatro Guindalera. The production starred Jeannine Mestre and was directed by Juan Pastor Millet. On November 3, 2017, Stageworks Theatre in Tampa, Florida, opened a production of the play featuring Vickie Daignault. Writing in the Tampa Bay Times, Colette Bancroft noted Daignault's "skill and subtlety" and the exploration of grief in Didion's play that was "raw and refined at once." Beginning in March 2020, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forced theatres to close worldwide. In the fall of 2021, productions began to resurface. Cesear's Forum, a minimalist theatre company at Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio, presented the play with Julia Kolibab in a November/December production. The play adaptation, narrated by Redgrave, was released in audio format on Audible in 2020. == Translations ==

• . Translated by Jarmila Emmerová. Prague: Beta - Pavel Dobrovský. 2006. . • . Translated by Christien Jonkheer. Amsterdam: Prometheus. 2006. . • . Translated by Vincenzo Mantovani. Milan: Il Saggiatore. 2006. . • . Translated by Olivia de Miguel. Chicago: Global Rhythm Press. 2006. . • . Translated by Li Jingyi. Taipei: YLib. 2007. . • . Translated by Marja Haapio. Helsinki: Like. 2007. . • . Translated by Pierre Demarty. Paris: Grasset. 2007. . • . Translated by Halvor Kristiansen. Oslo: Tiden Norsk Forlag. 2007. . • . Translated by Hanna Pasierska. Warsaw: Prószyński i S-ka. 2007. . • . Translated by Burcu Tümer Unan. Ankara: Arkadaş Yayınevi. 2007. . • . Translated by Lara Hölbling Matković. Ivanec Bistranski: Fraktura. 2009. . • . Translated by Xenia Mavrommati. Athens: KEDROS. 2011. . • . Translated by Toshio Ikeda. Tokyo: Keio University Press. 2011. . • . Translated by Krisztina Varga. Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó. 2017. . • . Translated by Bente Kastberg. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. 2018. . • . Translated by Shadi Kharmasho. Baghdad: Dar al-Mada. 2020. . • . Translated by Zornitsa Hristova. Sofia: List. 2021. . • . Translated by Vasily Arkanov. Moscow: Corpus. 2021. . • . Translated by Alen Bešić. Belgrade: Štrik. 2022. . • . Translated by Jana Juráňová. Bratislava: BRAK. 2023. . • European Portuguese: O Ano do Pensamento Mágico. Translated by Hugo Gonçalves. Lisbon: Infinito Particular / Cultura. 2017. ==References==