Book #115 |
Book: Notes to John | Author: Joan Didion | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook |
Pages: 250 | Duration: 11/25/25 – 11/26/25 (2 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: nonfiction, memoir, mental health, psychology, alcoholism, parenting | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Detailed, intimate recollection of therapy sessions written to her husband. 🖌6-word review: Confusing pronoun antecedents. Psychologically fascinating, heartbreaking. |
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| 💭A compelling quote: “You don’t always have to look ahead for the bump in the road. Your anticipating the bump won’t make the bump disappear. It’ll still be there. You’re afraid you won’t be prepared to deal with it if you don’t anticipate it, but you will. Your adrenalin kicks in and you deal with it. And meanwhile, you’ve been happy, which gives you more strength to deal with it.” | |||
| Description:* For several months, Didion recorded conversations with [her] psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, guilt, and the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. The subjects evolved to include her work, which she was finding difficult to maintain for sustained periods. There were discussions about her own childhood—misunderstandings and lack of communication with her mother and father, her early tendency to anticipate catastrophe—and the question of legacy, or, as she put it, “what it’s been worth.” The analysis would continue for more than a decade. Didion’s journal was crafted with the singular intelligence, precision, and elegance that characterize all of her writing.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: There is a healthy amount of debate about the ethics of sharing these notes written by Joan Didion to her husband John Dunne accounting her own therapy sessions with her psychiatrist from December 1999 to January 2002. The Guardian contends: Notes to John by Joan Didion review – an invasion of privacy. I’m of the opinion that it’s detailing things that happened to her, so it’s her story to tell. With that said, I do think it’s good that all of the principal players (i.e., Joan herself, her husband, daughter, and psychiatrist) are now dead. This is a fascinating look at what’s been called helicopter parenting (now also being called “lawnmower” or “snowplow” parents), specifically with regards to the inability to see how what seems like is helping a child really isn’t. I took off one star, because I struggled with following the pronoun antecedents used throughout. It takes some getting used to the fact that most times when she’s using “I,” she’s referring to herself, when using, “he,” she’s referring to her psychiatrist, and when using “you,” she’s referring to her husband. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
