Magical Thinking/ and The Year of Magical Thinking
OK, aside from titular similarities (and the fact both were read on my recent trip) it might seem perverse to discuss Joan Didion's exploration of loss and grief (The Year of Magical Thinking) and Augusten Burroughs' latest collection of memoir/stories (Magical Thinking. True Stories).
Burroughs prefaces his collection with a definition of Magical Thinking - "A schizotypal personality disorder attributing to one's own actions something that had nothing to do with him or her and thus assuming that one has a greater influence over events than is actually the case." The following stories are entertaining, but feel like they add little to his previous works except perhaps a greater sense of Burroughs own sense of self-absorption (one which to be fair he acknowledges). It would be good to see Burroughs wit and humour and real ability to write exploited in a more fictional work which uses other voices.
Didion's memoirs outline the death of her husband and daughter in a year of "magical thinking". No doubt she had a different concept of the term in entitling her work, but to some extent the above definition rings true. In her carefully written and deeply moving account Didion reveals the extent grief is a total experience - completely absorbing and centred around one self - ones sense of loss and responsibility. Didion debates with herself - if I had? if I hadn't? - attributing influence or power to herself that didn't exist, and hopes for some means of bringing back the man she loves. Yet, the fact that death, however tragic, can just happen makes for uncomfortable experience. Didion reveals her own experience of loss and grief in a skillful way, without falling into the genre of the 'how hard my life was' memoirs publishers have been so keen to force on us in recent years. Her work brings an understanding of not only her experience but also I think of grief in general. Its a powerful book that makes me wat to explore her earlier work.
Burroughs prefaces his collection with a definition of Magical Thinking - "A schizotypal personality disorder attributing to one's own actions something that had nothing to do with him or her and thus assuming that one has a greater influence over events than is actually the case." The following stories are entertaining, but feel like they add little to his previous works except perhaps a greater sense of Burroughs own sense of self-absorption (one which to be fair he acknowledges). It would be good to see Burroughs wit and humour and real ability to write exploited in a more fictional work which uses other voices.
Didion's memoirs outline the death of her husband and daughter in a year of "magical thinking". No doubt she had a different concept of the term in entitling her work, but to some extent the above definition rings true. In her carefully written and deeply moving account Didion reveals the extent grief is a total experience - completely absorbing and centred around one self - ones sense of loss and responsibility. Didion debates with herself - if I had? if I hadn't? - attributing influence or power to herself that didn't exist, and hopes for some means of bringing back the man she loves. Yet, the fact that death, however tragic, can just happen makes for uncomfortable experience. Didion reveals her own experience of loss and grief in a skillful way, without falling into the genre of the 'how hard my life was' memoirs publishers have been so keen to force on us in recent years. Her work brings an understanding of not only her experience but also I think of grief in general. Its a powerful book that makes me wat to explore her earlier work.
posted by davidc at
11:33 am
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