Friday, July 1, 2011

Beginning ~ at the speed of life

The Year of Magical Thinking ~ by Joan Didion, 2005, memoir, 8/10
Life changes fast.
Life changes in the instant.
You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.
The question of self-pity.
I like this beginning, which she repeats several times in various chapters.  It's true that we never know from moment to moment what may happen to us.  For example, my 45-year-old father died in a traffic accident on the first night of a new job delivering mail from city to city — he and the driver of the 18-wheeler got only two blocks (and were thus still in Chattanooga) before a car crashed into them from a side street.

The timing may have been right for me, just after the death of my former husband, and I read right through this book.  Didion's situation was different, of course, and I didn't need "magical thinking" to survive the year afterwards — or in my case, two or three weeks so far.  But I could relate.

Rated:  8 of 10, a good book.

If you want to play along, this meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Share the first sentence or two of the book you are reading. (Sometimes it takes several sentences to get the full thought.) Then, share your impressions of that beginning.  Click this link to see what others say about the books they are reading this week.

3 comments:

Helen's Book Blog said...

I am glad you liked this (and I often think timing has a huge role when we like or don't like a book). I tried this one years ago and just couldn't do it!

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

I am now curious about this one! Hi Bonnie happy fourth! :)

Beth said...

I read this book, too, Bonnie, and could also relate, though I've never (thank God) lost a husband.

I'm very sorry about the loss of your father and your former husband.