Notes to John
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
‘Utterly fascinating' NEW YORK TIMES
'A profound, rich document’ NEW STATESMAN
'An act of intimate storytelling' VOGUE
A recently discovered journal from one of America's most iconic writers, Joan Didion, the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights.
In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had 'a rough few years'. She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne.
For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana: adoption, depression, alcoholism, anxiety, guilt. 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. It is an unprecedently intimate account that reveals sides of her that were unknown, but the voice is unmistakably hers – questioning, courageous, and clear in the face of a wrenchingly painful journey.
'An incredibly intimate insight into her relationship with her daughter, depression, and creativity' GUARDIAN
'So moving. I am astonished at the level of recall … They are a record of trying to save a life, and understand her own' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'Sheds intriguing light on the question of Quintana’s part in the family dynamic' OBSERVER
'The literary source for the three great works of Didion's old age' INDEPENDENT
'It’s always a pleasure to read Didion’s measured prose' STANDARD
'Written with the immediacy of fresh recollection … and with the cool, forensic clarity she was known for' NEW YORKER
'Compulsive … it shows Didion the reporter at work' TELEGRAPH
'An intimate chronicle … Notes to John offers readers a key to Didion's persona and her work' NPR
'Perhaps for the first time, we can hope to see Didion as she saw the world: unwavering and unflinching, straight down the line' AnOTHER
'An unexpected parting gift to biographers and civilian readers' AIRMAIL
'Fascinating … offers insight into her work' iPAPER
'A tour de force from one of the best' PEOPLE
'Notes to John' was a New York Times bestseller w/c 2025-04-28.
About the author
JOAN DIDION was the author of five novels, twelve books of nonfiction, a play and many screenplays. She was born in California. She died at her home in New York City on 23 December 2021.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This intimate posthumous volume brings together notes from the early 2000s that Didion (Let Me Tell You What I Mean) addressed to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, on her sessions with psychiatrist Roger MacKinnon, whom she started seeing at the behest of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, in an effort to repair their relationship. The dispatches act as a cipher to 2011's Blue Nights, Didion's oblique meditation on Quintana's death in 2005 at age 39, revealing in greater detail Quintana's struggle with alcoholism and mental illness. According to the notes, MacKinnon encouraged Didion to work through how her own neuroses might be impacting Quintana, such as feeling guilty over having spent so much time working instead of playing with Quintana when she was young. Other recurring topics include the closeness of Didion and Dunne (MacKinnon suggests that the couple's tendency to sometimes hold back from expressing themselves to protect their professional relationship left Quintana feeling alienated and confused as to what a healthy marriage looked like), and the need for the pair to allow Quintana space to explore her own desires so she could move beyond simply trying to please them. More than mere notes, Didion's fly-on-the-wall reports recap the therapy sessions word-for-word, offering an unvarnished look into the personal life and psychology of the oft-enigmatic writer. As poignant as it is candid, this is essential reading for Didion devotees.
