A couple of weird things. I was reading “Year of Magical Thinking” on my phone. However, at some point the phone was updating firmware on a drone and wasn’t available. I had to step away. And I was like, ah, I wish I had a physical copy of the book. So I headed to the bookshelf to grab some other book to read while my phone was busy. And much to my surprise the first book I see is Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking! What a weird coincidence. Apparently I had just bought a physical copy of this book a few weeks ago and managed to forget everything about it.
And then I start admiring the physical book object. I started reading the reviews at the back on the jacket cover. This is when I notice the first word in a quote from a New York Times review - “thrilling…”. And I begin to think. I would use a lot of terms to describe this book but not “thrilling”. Not in a million years. The word would just not compute.
So, of course I did what one does these days. I asked ChatGPT(4) the question
- “Would anyone describe Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking as ‘thrilling’?”
ChatGPT (4) said this… (and fwiw, Siri’s response to the same question is in the image)
Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" is typically not described as "thrilling" in the traditional sense of the word. The book is a memoir about Didion's experience with grief after the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and the serious illness of their daughter, Quintana. It delves deeply into the psychological and emotional experience of loss, examining the coping mechanisms Didion employed to deal with her grief.
The book is often described as poignant, powerful, and heartbreaking. It's a moving exploration of grief, mourning, and the attempt to find meaning in a world that suddenly seems chaotic and unpredictable. It's a book that elicits deep empathy and understanding, and it's certainly gripping and compelling, but it does not have the elements of suspense, danger, and high stakes that are typically associated with "thrilling" books.
However, it's possible for someone to find "The Year of Magical Thinking" thrilling in a non-traditional sense. Some readers might find the raw honesty and depth of Didion's introspection thrilling, or they might be thrilled by the intellectual rigor and eloquence of her writing. But this is a different kind of thrill than the one you'd get from a suspense novel or a thriller movie.
