Notes to John

De: Joan Didion

Narrado por: Julianne Moore

An extraordinary work from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights

In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had “a rough few years.” She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne.

For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, guilt, and the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. The subjects evolved to include her work, which she was finding difficult to maintain for sustained periods. There were discussions about her own childhood—misunderstandings and lack of communication with her mother and father, her early tendency to anticipate catastrophe—and the question of legacy, or, as she put it, “what it’s been worth.” The analysis would continue for more than a decade.

Didion’s journal was crafted with the singular intelligence, precision, and elegance that characterize all of her writing. It is an unprecedently intimate account that reveals sides of her that were unknown, but the voice is unmistakably hers—questioning, courageous, and clear in the face of a wrenchingly painful journey.

©2025 Joan Didion (P)2025 Random House Audio

Beautiful, just beautiful

Superb reading from Julianne Moore. Beautiful story of pain, sorrow, love, what it takes to build a family, how it is to be a mother.

This autobiography discusses notes from therapy regarding Joan’s daughter’s addiction. Very insightful!

The struggles of a mother who wants to get her daughter sober are brutally honest and very well written. Joan’s willingness to dive into her her own psyche in effort to maintain a good relationship with her alcoholic/drug addicted daughter are incredibly brave and painful as she traces behavioral coping mechanisms passed on from generation to generation. Julianne Moore’s performances are outstanding.

Julianne Moore’s sensitive narration

The truthful, vulnerable experience Didion had navigating her daughter’s alcoholism as well as the intelligence of the psychiatrist

Joan Didion’s road through a personal hell

Julianne read beautifully
Joan reported dutifully
The pain of alcoholism in a family
Amazing view into Ms Didion’s dauntless courage
in the psychiatric journey she underwent at the hands of a master

Not what I expected

I love Joan Didion, but this book was pretty repetitious as well as depressing. Didion and her husband were in such a difficult time in their lives with their daughter Quintanna that it seemed as though things would never get any better. And, as it turned out, they didn't. I almost wish I hadn't read it.