Joan Didion, peerless prose stylist, dies at 87

By COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Joan Didion, the revered author and essayist whose provocative social commentary and detached, methodical literary voice made her a uniquely clear-eyed critic of a uniquely turbulent time, has died. She was 87. Didion’s publisher Penguin Random House announced the author’s death on Thursday. She died from complications from Parkinson’s disease, the company said. “The Year of Magical Thinking” is a classic work about grief that won the National Book Award and such essay collections as “The White Album” and “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” have become standard reading.