The Year of Magical Thinking

Author Joan Didion’s husband died of a sudden heart attack on Dec. 30, 2003; a year and a day later, Didion had completed her memoir about dealing with his death, A Year of Magical Thinking, which became one of 2005’s most acclaimed and commercially successful books. Books that successful are usually optioned for films, but Didion took a different route, instead, adapting her book into a one-woman Broadway play that actually expands on the book: It also covers the death of Didion’s daughter, which happened shortly after she finished the her manuscript (though is certainly foreshadowed in the book, as her daughter had severe health problems). Elizabeth Norment stars in the Milwaukee Rep’s production of this play.