November Meeting

The book was Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.

Since Joan has travelled everywhere, we thought, "what the heck, let's go to Belgium." So we ate at Cafe Montrose, where mussels seem to be the plat du every jour. Yuck. Most people seem to be crazy about these slimey little guys, but I went with the chicken.

On to Layne's house. Most people enjoyed Didion's book (if "enjoyed" is the right word for such a sad memoir) and we had a lot of discussion about grieving (Beryl, who specializes in grief counseling, was a big help here) and many people shared their own stories. We also talked about the idea of magical thinking--Didion not wanting to give away her husband's shoes, thinking that if her previous actions had been different, her husband would not have died.

Several people did not care for the book; they disliked the author's constant name dropping and/or found it difficult to sympathize with her because of her privileged lifestyle. Or they just didn't like her.

I found that I vacillated between envying her (who wouldn't like to live on the beach in Malibu) and sympathizing with her loss (losses if you include her daughter's death after the book was finished).

This was a great book for discussion! We're looking forward to hearing Joan's reading in January.

Oh, and by the way, Mary Du brought chocolate cake.