Book Review: Blue Nights by Joan Didion

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aging, blue nights, Book Review, Books, family, grief, joan didion, John Dunne, Memoir, new york, playwright, Quintana Roo Dunne, Reading, The Year of Magical Thinking, Writing

• In the same (and yet very different) vein of The Year of Magical Thinking, the memoir Blue Nights focuses on the loss of Didion’s daughter, Quintana, as well as the author’s realization of her own aging process.
• Despite what Didion may fear (discussed in the book), she remains at the top of her game. Her writing style evokes a measured surface of control, under which a storm roils. The words or phrases that she chooses to repeat, almost as mantras, throughout the book, are terrifically powerful.
• As with Magical Thinking, I found Blue Nights to be engaging and revealing, with the ability to ring true with any reader.