Book Shorts. Reviews in a Nutshell.

Notes to John by Joan Didion

Published posthumously, Notes to John contains Didion's entries to a journal she was keeping for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. It chonicles the highlights of her sessions with her psychiatrist during late 1999-January 2002, after which and during the Didion/Dunne family had had a Didion described "rough few years." The insightfulness, transparency, honesty, and meticulous detail of Didion's writing is beyond compelling. Few things are off limits--alcoholism, depression, guilt, adoption, parenting, Didion's childhood, family, and parents. Comments about literary and film "royalty." You can't put it down. It just flows. As a writer, I appreciate how the dated journal entries serve as the thread that pulls you through, with each entry flowing to or picking up from other sessions. Perhaps not intended as such, it serves as a literary device that draws the reader through the highs and lows, anxiety and confidence that is the story. Masterful!