Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, California, and now lives in New York City. She is the author of five novels and eight previous books of nonfiction. Her collected nonfiction, "We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live, "was published by Everyman's Library in 2006.
"A haunting memoir . . . Didion is, to my mind, the best living
essayist in America . . . What appears on the surface to be an
elegantly, intelligently, deeply felt, precisely written story of
the loss of a beloved child is actually an elegantly,
intelligently, deeply felt, precisely written glimpse into the
abyss, a book that forces us to understand, to admit, that there
can be no preparation for tragedy, no protection from it, and so,
finally, no consolation . . . The book has . . . an incantatory
quality: it is a beautiful, soaring, polyphonic eulogy, a
beseeching prayer the is sung even as one knows the answer to one's
plea, and that answer is: No."
--Cathleen Schine, "The New York Review of Books"
""Blue Nights," though as""elegantly written as one would expect,
is rawer than its predecessor, the 'impenetrable polish' of former,
better days now""chipped and scratched. The author as she presents
herself here, aging and baffled, is defenseless against the pain of
loss, not only the loss of loved ones but the loss that is yet to
come: the loss, that is, of selfhood. The book will be another huge
success . . . Certainly as a testament of suffering nobly borne,
which is what it will be generally taken for, it is exemplary.
However, it is most profound, and most provocative, at another
level, the level at which""the author comes fully to realize, and
to face squarely, the dismaying fact that against life's worst
onslaughts nothing avails, not even art; especially not art."
--John Banville, "The New York Times Book Review"
"The master of American prose turns her sharp eye on her own family
once again in this breathtaking follow-up to "The Year of Magical
Thinking." With harrowing honesty and mesmerizing style, Didion
chronicles the tragic death of her daughter, Quintana, interwoven
with memories of their happier days together and Didion's own
meditations on aging."
--Malcolm Jones and Lucas Wittmann, "Newsweek"
"A searing memoir"
--
Kimberly Farr turns in a solid performance in this audio edition of Didion's haunting memoir of her daughter Quintana Roo's illness and death. The book is a sequel of sorts to Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking-about the unexpected death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne-and this previous work haunts Blue Nights and helps to guide Farr's narration. A younger woman than the author, Farr's reading often lacks the mournful quality of the text: her narration is simply perkier than Didion's prose. And while Farr does justice to the author's story-using the elongation of precisely chosen words to indicate untapped reservoirs of emotion-there are times when the reading takes on a tone more appropriate to a less rigorous story of uplift through death. A Knopf hardcover. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Just 20 months after her husband died of a sudden heart attack, best-selling essayist Didion (The Year of Magical Thinking) had to face the death of her only daughter, Quintana Roo, after a long illness. This poignant and touching memoir explores her feelings about loss, motherhood, and her own aging as well as Quintana's life. VERDICT 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.]-Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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