The late novelist and journalist records her innermost struggles. Didion died in 2021. Afterward, a file of private notes was discovered among her things, including notes addressed to her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, recounting sessions with the noted Freudian psychiatrist Roger MacKinnon.
The dialogue with MacKinnon is related with enough precision that you wonder if Didion was running a tape recorder in therapy ... Written with Didion’s constitutional meticulousness ... Not a finely cut sapphire. More like a cloud of diamond dust ... Rough, incomplete, raises more questions than it answers, slightly sordid and absolutely fascinating ... Darkening some of the dazzle of an important star, clarifying but also complicating our view.
An intimate chronicle ... Written with her signature precision though without her usual stylistic, incantatory repetitions, it is the least guarded of Didion's writing ... [The entries'] power lies partly in their rawness ... May offer insights to other parents grappling with their own children's substance abuse.
Dry, lambent ... Plainspoken, blunt, and even a bit quotidian ... One can’t help but feel like a voyeur ... An act of intimate storytelling ... The book will comfort anyone with a struggling addict in their family ... Rivet[ing].
