Days before his death, their daughter Quintana Roo Dunne Michael was hospitalized in New York with pneumonia, which developed into septic shock; she was still unconscious when her father died.

[5] The experience of insanity or derangement that is part of grief is a major theme about which Didion was unable to find a great deal of existing literature.

She is haunted by questions about the medical details of her husband's death, the possibility that he sensed it in advance, and how she might have made his remaining time more meaningful.

[8] Quintana Roo Dunne Michael died of pancreatitis on August 26, 2005, before the book's publication, but Didion did not revise the manuscript.

[19] On March 29, 2007, Didion's adaptation of her book for Broadway, directed by David Hare, opened with Vanessa Redgrave as the sole cast member.

[20] This production was set to tour the world, including Salzburg, Athens, Dublin Theatre Festival, Bath and Cheltenham.

On October 26, 2009, Redgrave reprised her performance again in a benefit production of the play at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.

[24] The play was mounted in April 2011 by Nimbus Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, starring Barbra Berlovitz and directed by Liz Neerland.

[27] The Norwegian translation of the play premiered in September 2015 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen, directed by Jon Ketil Johnsen and starring Rhine Skaanes.

Writing in the Tampa Bay Times, Colette Bancroft noted Daignault's "skill and subtlety" and the exploration of grief in Didion's play that was "raw and refined at once.

Cesear's Forum, a minimalist theatre company at Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio, presented the play with Julia Kolibab in a November/December production.