The Year of Magical Thinking

Review

This is a book that—not to be too morbid about it—I think I need to revisit when I suffer a great loss. It's beautifully written, engaging, and has a wonderfully distinctive voice, but I think a lot of the emotional heft was muted for me (lucky me, knocking on wood as I write this). Instead, my main impression was that it felt like reading someone's diary—I was sometimes frustrated by the regular name-dropping of people I don't know and the feeling of being wrapped up in someone else's social circle without sufficient explanation of who these people are. That said, it struck me as a tremendously well-researched and thoughtful examination of grief. I'm not excited to revisit it (because of the circumstances that would require), but suffice it to say that I won't be sad about having to read it again (that feeling will be entirely separate).