Joan Didion verlor in kurzer Folge zwei ihr liebe Menschen. Den Tod ihres Ehemannes verarbeitete sie in The Year of Magical Thinking. Kurz vor der Veröffentlichung verstarb auch ihre schwer kranke Tochter Quintana. In Blue Nights teilt Didion ihre intensiven und bewegenden Erinnerungen an ihre Tochter und ihre Gedanken über Kinder, Krankheit und das Älterwerden mit dem Leser.
Didion writes with stunning frankness about her daughter, Quintana Roo, as well as thoughts and fears about having children and about growing old. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, she asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were missed or perhaps displaced. Seamlessly woven in are incidents Didion sees as underscoring her own age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.
