by Joan Didion (Harper Perennial, £7.99)”Life changes in the instant you sit down to dinner,” writes Joan Didion after her husband of 40 years suffered a heart attack at the table. This autobiographical novel will appeal to anyone who has ever lost a loved one and struggled to come to terms with their death.
Fellow writer John Dunne’s death happened just days after the couple’s only daughter Quintana fell ill with what seemed at first flu but developed into complete septic shock during Christmas 2003.
John’s funeral was not held until the March when Quintana was well enough to attend after undergoing six hours of brain surgery to relieve a massive haematoma.
Didion then spends the rest of the year wishing he was back. She won’t throw out his shoes in case he returns and needs them.
This is an intensely personal story. The theme of change in an instant runs throughout the novel as Didion tries to make sense of her new life but at the same time listening to what her husband would have said.
Didion’s story, which was winner of America’s National Book Award, is also about the act of writing itself. She says: “The way I write is who I am.” Her life with John revolved around writing as they both worked from home and connected with each other all day.
Didion uses texts on grief varying from Emily Post’s 1922 book of etiquette to scientific works on coronary heart disease to try to come to terms with his death but in the end realises the way to move on is just to “go with the change.”
Rating: ***
Review by Rebecca Lawrence
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