For several months, Joan Didion recorded conversations with her 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 childhoodmisunderstandings and lack of communication with her mother and father, her early tendency to anticipate catastropheand the question of legacy, or, as she put it, what its been worth. The analysis would continue for more than a decade.

Didions 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 hersquestioning, courageous, and clear in the face of a wrenchingly painful journey.