Chapter 18 Summary and Analysis

Almost a year after John died, Didion finally received the autopsy report. Because of her grief, she'd written the address of their first home, and the report had been delayed.

The terminology here is almost exclusively medical. After reading the report several times, she comes to the conclusion that John was dead from the moment he had the initial event at the dining room table.

It was, she realizes finally, after so many months on being fixated on the exact cause, the heart condition that had been diagnosed so long before that killed him, and that all John's medical treatment had only postponed the event. She also realizes, there really was nothing she could have done.

This chapter marks the beginning of both an end and the end—an end to the first stage of the author's grieving process, and...