Author of ‘The Year Of Magical Thinking’ and a Celebrated Columnist and Essayist Dies at 87!
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Sharp-sighted critic and revered essayist ‘Joan Didion‘ left the world at 87. Reports have documented that Joan Didion lost the battle of life to a neurological disorder called Parkinson’s disease.
Penguin Random House– a publication house- pronounced her death news on Thursday morning.
Reflecting upon the company’s working experience with the late author, the company said,
‘Didion was one of the country’s most trenchant writers and astute observers. Her best-selling works of fiction, commentary, and memoir have received numerous honours and are considered modern classics.’
Didion was regarded as a fragile and delicate novelist and had bulging eyes hidden behind the round glasses. Her eyes used to sparkle mixed with an element of darkness and sadness.
Talking about herself, the late author once mumbled,
‘I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests.’
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Her most celebrated works include ‘The White Album’, ‘Good Citizens’ and ‘Slouching Toward Bethlehem.’
Her notable work, ‘The Year of Magical Thinking‘, sheds light upon hidden aspects of her life. The book was published and distributed widely in 2005; it was provided with the National Book Award.
In 2012, she was honoured with National Humanities Medal for her deep observation and deadpan writings; she never sugar-coated or exaggerated her writings- one of her best attributes.
Though she tried to make the world fascinating for the masses, her own life was quite doomed.
She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during her late thirties. Her doctor regarded her as ‘fundamentally pessimistic, fatalistic and depressive.’
She had discussed her condition at work when her love partner and husband- John Dunne– left the world.
In another piece of writing called ‘Blue Nights’, she has opened up about the tragic demise of her sweetheart daughter.
The New York Times renowned and established critic paid her a farewell.
The critic Michiko Kakutani once said,
‘California belongs to Joan Didion. Not the California where everyone wears aviator sunglasses owns a Jacuzzi and buys his clothes on Rodeo Drive. But California in the sense of the West. The old West where Manifest Destiny was an almost palpable notion that was somehow tied to the land and the climate and one’s own family.’
Joan Didion came into this world in 1934.
She lived an exceptional and dedicated life. She wrote about wars, suicides, social issues, and other dilemmas prevailing in the surrounding. She was a traveller and an explorer.
May her soul rest in peace!
