I just read Blue Nights, by Joan Didion.  It's about what she went through and how she felt, as her adult daughter was dying.

You get that I said it's about her daughter dying, right?  Her husband died one year before.  Joan Didion is a recognized author, among other things. Her husband was also a famous author. Because of that, some of her friends are also famous.  How could they not be?

Now here's the thing...some of the one star reviews said she was "name dropping," and "whiny."  They said things as if she was on an "ego trip" and get this...one person said the book was "depressing."

I'm sorry, am I missing something?  Did the reader think the book was going to be a comedy?

Having gone through what she went through,  in reverse order, I can understand what she was saying.

Maybe the review writers never lost a child, or a husband.  Maybe they have, but perhaps they didn't care.  Whatever the reason, Didion hasn't been well herself, for years.  I just thought she deserved a break.

A lot of people don't know what it's like to spend months in a hospital room, every single day, waiting for something to happen.  It's horrific, absolutely exhausting, as well as terrifying.

Blue Nights is a book about loss.  Not only of a child but of one's own youth.  She wrote about what it was like to lose your abilities and confidence.  To be afraid of falling, of not being able to remember things.  To know that you'll never be able to wear red 4" heels again.  Meaning that you have to acknowledge that you'll never be able to be yourself again.  Not in the way you knew yourself to be.  As I said, Didion hasn't been healthy for a very long time.  Still, she persists.