''Blue Nights'' is a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

written by

American author American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...

, first published in 2011. The memoir is an account of the death of Didion's daughter, Quintana, who died in 2005 at age 39. Didion also discusses her own feelings on parenthood and

aging Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming Old age, older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentiall ...

. The title refers to certain times in the "

summer solstice The summer solstice or estival solstice occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). The summer solstice is the day with the longest peri ...

..when the twilights turn long and blue." ''Blue Nights'' is notable for its "nihilistic" attitude towards

grief Grief is the response to the loss of something deemed important, particularly to the death of a person to whom or animal to which a Human bonding, bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, ...

as Didion offers little understanding or explanation of her daughter's death. Writing for ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'', Cathleen Schine said,

"'We tell ourselves stories in order to live,' Didion famously wrote in '' The White Album''. ''Blue Nights'' is about what happens when there are no more stories we can tell ourselves, no narrative to guide us and make sense out of the chaos, no order, no meaning, no conclusion to the tale."

''Blue Nights'' has been called a "companion piece"Banville, John
Book review.
''The New York Times''. Accessed November 5, 2014. to Didion's ''

The Year of Magical Thinking ''The Year of Magical Thinking'' is a memoir by Joan Didion, accounting of the year following the death of her husband John Gregory Dunne in 2003. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Knopf in October 2005, ''The Year of Magical Thinking'' was immediat ...

'', published in 2005, which focuses on Didion's experiences following the death of her husband and hospitalization of her daughter.

Style

Unlike some other memoirs, including Didion's previous work, ''Blue Nights'' does not follow a conventional narrative path. Didion's writing is repetitive and nonlinear, reflecting the difficult process of coping with her daughter's death.Cusk, Rachel
Book review.
''The Guardian.'' Accessed November 5, 2014. Didion frequently diverges from the subject of her daughter and often discusses her own life and feelings. Quintana's "fleeting presence" in the book can be said to illustrate the difficulty of coping with a child's death. Other critics believe it demonstrates Didion's "lack of humility," a quality she has been criticized for as "a perennial insider" for her own contributions, or lack of, towards her daughter's decline.

Background

On New Year's weekend of 1966, Joan's friend Diana Lynn brought up the conversation of adoption. Joan and John were struggling to have a child of their own, and Diana gave them the name of the doctor who had delivered her own adopted children. In the early hours of March 3, 1966, Joan and John received a call from that same doctor stating that he had just delivered a baby girl and needed to know whether or not they wanted her. An hour later Joan and John stood outside the nursery with no question, this baby was going to be theirs.''Joan Didion, The Center Will Not Hold''. Dunne, Griffin, Netflix, 2017. During her early years, Quintana struggled with the knowledge of her adoption. Quintana could be heard questioning what would have happened should John not have picked up the phone on March 3, 1966, or if there had been an accident on the freeway on their way to pick her up. During her early years, Quintana had a multitude of diagnoses for her anxiety and depression. It was not until her adult life that a doctor diagnosed her with

borderline personality disorder Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive, long-term pattern of significant interpersonal relationship instability, an acute fear of Abandonment (emotional), abandonment, and intense emotiona ...

. The symptoms of such a diagnosis were apparent in Quintana's character. Joan had witnessed these effects: "I had seen the charm, I had seen the composure, I had seen the suicidal despair." With all the confusion surrounding her mental state, Quintana would spend her early adult life self-medicating with alcohol. This addiction led her to meet her bartender husband, Gerald Brian Michael. On July 26, 2003, Quintana married Gerry in the

Cathedral of St. John the Divine The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhoo ...

in New York. On December 24, 2003, Quintana was admitted to the emergency room with flu-like symptoms. Her illness, which initially seemed routine, would soon become life-threatening. Her father John died unexpectedly of a heart attack on December 30, 2003. The funeral would have to wait until Quintana was strong enough to attend. Afterward, Quintana had planned a trip to Los Angeles whereupon she fell and hit her head exiting the airport. Brain surgery and two years of post-op recovery were not sufficient; her injury coupled with her multiple illnesses would lead to her death on August 26, 2005. The memoir ''Blue Nights'' deals not with Quintana's illnesses or her death, but rather with Joan's mourning process. The memoir covers the timeline of Quintana's life via Joan's understanding of it. Joan struggled to come to terms with her mothering of Quintana and questioned whether she lived up to the title of "mother" and whether Quintana would agree.

Reception

In a ''New York Times'' review,

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...

stated that Didion's style changed after the memoir that focused on the death of her husband, ''The Year of Magical Thinking''. Banville states that Didion, having not been able to find an outlet for her grief following the unexpected death of her husband, began to write ''The Year of Magical Thinking'' as her way of mourning her late husband John. With Quintana's death, Didion takes much longer to compile her thoughts in a way that she wants them represented. After writing the initial drafts, Didion rewrites in order to make that turn from cold journalistic reporting to more emotional reflection. Didion's struggle to express her grief is explicated by critic

Rachel Cusk Rachel Cusk FRSL (born 8 February 1967) is a British novelist and writer. Childhood and education Cusk was born in Saskatoon to British parents in 1967, the second of four children with an older sister and two younger brothers, and spent muc ...

, from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'': Cusk states, "''Blue Nights'' is in a sense the manifestation of this frailty, the dwindling and fading of the artist's ability to create order out of randomness and chaos of experience". Other critics such as Hellar McAlpin, from ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', focus more on the impact of the stylistic choices made by Didion, describing the book as "a beautiful condolence note to humanity about some of the painful realities of the human condition that deserves to be painted on traditional black-bordered mourning stationary". Similarly, ''

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

'''s Lawrence Frascella describes the book as having "an aching desperation...to reach some sort of shattering revelation about mortality. And this determination — this ferocity — more than compensates for Didion's sometimes suffocating self-consciousness. Ultimately, ''Blue Nights'' leaves us wrecked."

References

External links

Book page on the official website
{{Joan Didion Books by Joan Didion American memoirs Alfred A. Knopf books 2011 non-fiction books Nonlinear narrative literature