Description

After his brother’s death from opioid addiction, Jacob Bacharach turns Didion’s masterpiece into a blueprint for grief and self-discovery

Reading Joan Didion’s iconic memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, Jacob Bacharach’s thoughts are never far from his brother, Nate, who died of an opioid addiction. Although he tries to be a “a cool customer” like Didion, he finds Nate’s story breaking through the text, stirring memories of their tight-knit childhood and defying his attempts to uncover “the truth” about a tragic death. In A Cool Customer, Bacharach turns The Year of Magical Thinking into a blueprint for grief and self-discovery that anyone can follow.

Jacob Bacharach is the author of The Bend of the World and The Doorposts of Your House and on Your Gates. His writing has appeared in The New Republic and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“Bacharach smartly weaves his family story with a literate discussion of Didion’s narratives and cultural position to make a snappy and inviting book you could easily read in one sitting.” —Rebecca Foster

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