Blue Nights

A Memoir

By: Joan Didion

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old.

Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood—in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed, either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. “How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?” Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other. Seamlessly woven in are incidents Didion sees as underscoring her own age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.

Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profoundly moving.

©2011 Joan Didion (P)2011 Random House

So sad

A mother’s for her child - a life just reached blooming age, a wife’s love for her lifelong husband, a sense of powerless over aging and all the ailments that come with aging…. So much pain and so much sorrow. Yet they are all so real. For no one would expect any death would happen to oneself, but we are born only to die. It’s a one way street. It makes me ponder the inevitable end of life we will all be going to have in the end, and how to be present and live our life to the fullest when we are still up and running.

Extremely moving memoir, well-narrated

I was so moved by this very beautiful memoir. The author tells the story of the loss of her beloved daughter with great intensity and lyrical beauty without an ounce of pity or sentimentality. It has music, rhythm and beautiful images to connect thoughts and emotions directly to the reader and to her experience of loss. This is a profound story of loss and of aging that memorializes the beloved child while connecting to the fading of her own life. I can only say that this book reached directly into my heart and soul and hit me in all of my senses. The author expresses thoughts and feelings with so much power and grace. The reader is excellent and reads with a speed and pace that matches the text and understands its rhythms. Highly recommended.

Blue Nights

I think one of the morals of this story is that mortality means losing a child. this narrative really captures the day-to-day and moment-to-moment of dealing with such a great loss.

Somewhat disappointing

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The timeline was very confusing...back and forth between childhood and her daughter as an adult seemed very choppy and disorganized.

If you’ve listened to books by Joan Didion before, how does this one compare?

I loved

More Magical Thinking

I am a fan of Joan Didion's style of writing. For those of us who loved and lost it helps to understand.

A Reader's Companion for Those Who Grieve

I loved this book, and I carry the story with me not only in my purse as I ride public transit, but in my heart as well. As Joan Didion takes us by the hand , and winds us through her story so deeply woven into who she is, and, for some of us, who we are, I felt I had a wonderful empathic friend, as I face the losses of my loves also. Her style is different in this book. It is not "tight", it is not driven. It isn't even modern. It is a timeless journey, with so many turns in the road, so many cul-de-sac, that it mirrored my own wandering experience when I lost my love. In those days, I didn't go back to work. I didn't set goals. I couldn't. The pain numbed my brain, and held the fate of my heart in it's hands as I finally found my way through it. In this process, I happened to come across this dear story of love and loss. When it's over, there is no longer "normal", there is only different. This book was my companion in empathy and compassion. Thank you so much.

A Heartbreaking Story

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blue Nights?

Didion's memories of her daughter through the years-- different, specific moments-- and the way she linked them together, really made this a heartbreaking read. I love Didion anyway; having been introduced to her in grad school, I have greedily sucked in just about everything she's written, I put this on my Wish List as soon as I saw that it was due to be published. There isn't a single moment that sticks out to me. This is just a beautiful memorial to Quintana Roo.

Which scene was your favorite?

The memory of what Quintana wore for her wedding was a great one. I like how she returned to it several times.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I had to keep myself from crying, mostly. I knew how it was going to end. . . I wonder how long it took Didion to write this.

Any additional comments?

If you haven't read The Year of Magical Thinking yet, I recommend that one before this. And if you've never read anything else by Didion, do that, too. You won't be sorry. Her way with words will leave you breathless.

Beautiful book ... grief, aging

Joan Didion is an amazing writer and an even more amazing woman. I feel as if I know her after reading her latest books. She helped me deal with my own grief - her writing is poignant and beautiful.

moving for anyone who has dealt with loss

a perfect sequel to the year of magical thinking. didions prose and writing structure are inspiring. personal without too much sentimentality. excellent.

Full Circle

A sad story, that does not leave you feeling sad. This book is truly brilliant!