In the years since 2021’s “Let Me Tell You What I Mean” and the author’s death later that year, to have “a new Joan Didion book” seemed like an impossibility.
Not anymore.
Didion’s literary trustees uncovered a 150-page document in her office. In “Notes on John” (out now from Knopf), the pioneering author records intimate conversations from her time in therapy on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, motherhood, guilt and her childhood.
Now, USA TODAY readers can listen to an exclusive audiobook clip narrated by “Still Alice” actor Julianne Moore, provided by Penguin Random House.
What is ‘Notes to John’ by Joan Didion about?
“Notes to John” is a series of journal entries recording Didion’s time seeing a psychiatrist after a “rough few years” in her life. She addressed these to her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The collection provides an unflinching look at Didion’s struggle to write and ruminations on her legacy. She also writes about her troubled relationship with her daughter, Quintana, who died of complications from pancreatitis at age 39. According to a foreword from the publisher, Didion started going to therapy because Quintana’s psychiatrist believed their mother-daughter relationship was the root of many of Quintana’s problems.
These pages are also now on view at the Didion/Dunne archive at the New York Public Library.
Posthumous publication often lands in murky territory, and the leadup to “Notes to John” is no different. Didion herself published an essay critiquing the posthumous publication of Ernest Hemingway’s memoir “True at First Light.” Some are merely celebrating that there is new Didion to chew on and posit she would’ve rather it were told in her own words than through a biographer. Others argue the book’s intimacy is too personal a look and should’ve been left in the shadows.
Listen to Julianne Moore narrate new Joan Didion book
In this clip from the “Notes to John” audiobook, Moore narrates an entry from Didion about her relationship with Quintana. Dated January 12, 2000, Didion writes about her struggle to support Quintana’s Alcoholics Anonymous journey and her daughter’s childhood poetry, which Didion remarks conveys a striking “loneliness.”
Audio excerpted with permission of Penguin Random House Audio from NOTES TO JOHN by Joan Didion, read by Julianne Moore. © Joan Didion ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC.
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at [email protected].
