"Life changes in an instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." Joan Didion, a remarkable writer and observer of our world, gave her very private grief a very public face when she wrote A Year of Magical Thinking, this year's National Book Award winner in nonfiction. It's an anatomy of desperation, grief and mourning, delivered in her deceptively simple prose. Deceptive because its very simplicity makes her raw emotions real, viscerally palpable. These are not emotions or states of mind often dissected; she wasn't looking for that constantly called-for "closure," she was charting her attempt to reverse time, to comprehend what had happened so suddenly, to deal with the yawning ache left in her soul. The "life" that ended was her 40-year, vibrantly close marriage to fellow writer John Gregory Dunne. In recounting the year that followed his death, Didion offers a portrait of their marriage, of their intertwined writerly lives, of their concern for their only daughter, then gravely ill. Barbara Caruso reads, and hearing Didion's words makes this very personal book even more intimate—moving, memorable, instructional in an odd way, a needed dose of reality where we usually get only platitudes. Copyright 2006 BookPage Reviews.

On December 30, 2003, Didion witnessed the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, from a massive coronary in their living room. The couple had just returned home after visiting their daughter, Quintana, who had been hospitalized and placed on life support several days earlier, diagnosed with a severe case of septic shock. Several weeks later, their daughter recovered, only to collapse two months later from a massive hematoma that required emergency brain surgery and an arduous recovery. (Quintana Roo Dunne Michael died on August 26, 2005.) This work is both a memoir of Didion's family life and a meditation chronicling the course of her grief. Throughout this account she describes her attempts to study grief, reading extensively on the topic because "information was control." While the events and emotions disclosed are tragic and uncomfortable, the author's description of her relationship with her husband and daughter lend beauty to the tragedy. With a wonderfully emotional yet controlled narration provided by Barabara Caruso, this program is a worthwhile listening experience. Appropriate for adult audiences and recommended for all audiobook collections.--Dawn Eckenrode, Daniel A. Reed Lib., SUNY-Fredonia

After her husband's fatal heart attack, which came at a time when their daughter Quintana was in intensive care for complications after pneumonia, Didion was labeled "a pretty cool customer" by a social worker because she seemed to be handling these shocks so calmly. Caruso's reading certainly reflects this aspect of Didion's reaction--sometimes her clear, elegant voice seems downright cold, making the listener wish for a little more emotion. The slightly eerie sounds of bells and cello that swell in at occasional breaks in the narration help in this respect, but mostly the audiobook is as straightforward a production as Didion wanted her life to be in that horrible year. Throughout those months, Didion immersed herself in the literature of grief and quotes frequently from poets and writers who helped her come to terms with her pain. Caruso does a good job with these passages, lingering on and highlighting certain phrases that Didion returns to time and again, shifting their meaning slightly as she progresses. Despite trying to write in an almost clinically detached way, Didion's sorrow and anger do break through at times in the book. Unfortunately, Caruso's cool reserve never cracks, so this audio ends up making less of an impact than the National Book Award- winning print edition. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews, June 27) (Oct.)