RaveNPRIn her new book, Blue Nights, the 76-year-old author has pieced together literary snapshots, and retrieved memories about her daughter's life and death ... Her prose, in the past, just gleamed — terse, elegant, understated and piercing. The new book is what's left, after loss ... Most of Didion's books contain little mantras — quick phrases, repeated here and there throughout the text ... In Blue Nights, Didion writes that in theory, these mementos should bring back the moment, but in fact, they only make clear how inadequately she appreciated the moment back when it happened ... It's a way to get through harrowing times and unimaginable losses.
