As I was reading the section “Acclaim for Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking” that prefaces the book, there was one quotation pulled from a review in the Chicago Sun-Times that stood out to me: “She has given the reader an eloquent starting point from which to navigate through the wilderness of grief.” I wondered, first, about the use of the phrase “starting point” here – particularly where does one start when grieving or mourning – and I wondered, second, about the choice of the word “wilderness” to describe one’s grief.