A dissection of American life in the late 1960s, "Play It As It Lays "captures the mood of an entire generation. Joan Didion chose Hollywood to ser...
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Mar 12, 2009
Jessica
rated it: 
I remember when I read Where I Was From a couple years ago, Didion referred a lot to her novel Play It As It Lays and I thought it sounded really bad. About a year ago I found an old edition someplace with this enormous and brain-numbingly awesome picture of Didion with her cigarette and legendarily icy, ironical stare. I really came close to buying it just because of that image on the back, but then I had a real stern confrontation with myself in the used fiction aisle about the folly and immat
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4 comments
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(10 people liked it)
May 20, 2009
Weinz
rated it:
Recently my five y/o daughter caught the first minute of the "Thriller" video. I say the first minute because upon seeing Michael look up at the camera with yellow eyes and fangs she threw her hands up, screamed at the top of her lungs, ran from the room, into her room, ran back into the room (still screaming), out of the room, back in and buried her head into the safety of my comforting lap (still screaming).
Now I realize this is most people's reaction to seeing Micheal More...
Now I realize this is most people's reaction to seeing Micheal More...
15 comments
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(15 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Sara
rated it: 
This book is simply brilliant. The fatalism of it's heroine, Maria Wyeth, is absolutely heart-wrenching as she slowly grows more and more tired of life. Didion is a surgeon, each sentence like a scalpel cutting away a cancerous tumor. No one can match her for brutal honesty. While it's a very quick read at just over 200 pages, it deals a swift but heavy blow.
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(8 people liked it)
Apr 25, 2008
Ricky
rated it: 
When I finished reading this book the other day, I suddenly realized that I hadn't really appreciated it correctly. That I needed to reread it right away because I hadn't read it the right way and because there is a lot that you don't have enough information to make sense of the first time around.
I don't understand how people can call this book cold and sterile. I just thought it was so rich and textured and heartbreaking. I feel like the little chapters are like puzzle pieces and More...
I don't understand how people can call this book cold and sterile. I just thought it was so rich and textured and heartbreaking. I feel like the little chapters are like puzzle pieces and More...
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(7 people liked it)
Feb 19, 2009
Evan
rated it:
It's probably not cricket to give away the last, or nearly last line of a book, but this packs a punch: "I know what 'nothing' means, and keep on playing."
So what does one say about a book that is at once and the same time equally infuriating and incisive and compelling? The background is, after all, Hollywood and so by extension the ennui of the heroine is supposed to be seen as heroic, eg., she's genuine when everyone else is phony. But I think she's just as phony. Having More...
So what does one say about a book that is at once and the same time equally infuriating and incisive and compelling? The background is, after all, Hollywood and so by extension the ennui of the heroine is supposed to be seen as heroic, eg., she's genuine when everyone else is phony. But I think she's just as phony. Having More...
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(3 people liked it)
Nov 03, 2008
Elaina
rated it:
I would still describe it as "The Bell Jar" meets "Valley of the Dolls". However, that one-liner doesnt at all fairly represent the excellent writing by Joan Didion, which made me think of Fitzgerald and Hemmingway. There is also a touch of the 60's beatnik going on. You really get a feel for the era. I actually read it twice, first kind of zipping along, trying to get the general feeling, and then a second time, very carefully. The imagery Didion uses is so powerful and
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May 17, 2007
Abe
rated it:
A novel in snippets, Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays begins with three passages narrated in the first person by three of the main characters—the focus of these people’s observations is Maria, the first of the three, and the main character of the novel. The rest of the book is comprised of 84 pieces of prose narrated in the third person from Maria’s point of view. What emerges from these episodic glimpses into the hazy world of a would-be starlet, wife, and mother is a portrait of dissolution,
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 04, 2010
Jason
rated it:
Kind of fascinating to see that concise, tip-of-the-iceberg prose of Didion's essays applied to a piece of fiction. The heroine, who seems to share the author's withering intelligence, can't enjoy the decadence that her friends have resigned themselves to, but she isn't much good with the wholesome life either, so she carves out a mostly solitary existence made up of sleeping next to her swimming pool, compulsively hitting the highway (she puts less thought into zipping over to Vegas [distance:
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(2 people liked it)
Mar 24, 2007
Xio
rated it:
I very much enjoy her blunt, frank, clear tone. She reminds me of Marguerite Duras' style. By which remark I include The Lover but am leaning more toward her other works.
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 23, 2008
Lisa
rated it:
i think i would actually give this 3.5 stars. it's close to 4... but...
never having read any of didion's fiction i was immensely curious as to what i would find. her stylistic approach to fiction is very similar to the non-fiction i've read of hers. sentences and thoughts come at you in short, precise, loaded, and planned prose. words are not minced. i got a clear sense that every adjective and every word carried weight.
this is not a happy book. and i couldn't really sym More...
never having read any of didion's fiction i was immensely curious as to what i would find. her stylistic approach to fiction is very similar to the non-fiction i've read of hers. sentences and thoughts come at you in short, precise, loaded, and planned prose. words are not minced. i got a clear sense that every adjective and every word carried weight.
this is not a happy book. and i couldn't really sym More...
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 26, 2007
April
rated it:
You ever notice how almost every review you’ll read of a Joan Didion book calls her “intelligent,” or says that she writes “intelligent prose”? That must get to you. No wonder all of her heroines take pills.
It’s true, though, she does have an awful big brain for such a little lady. And yeah, L.A. is scary, and there isn’t really anyone who conveys that better than her…except maybe Philip K. Dick, who isn’t literally writing about L.A., but come on.
But, I don’t know, as g More...
It’s true, though, she does have an awful big brain for such a little lady. And yeah, L.A. is scary, and there isn’t really anyone who conveys that better than her…except maybe Philip K. Dick, who isn’t literally writing about L.A., but come on.
But, I don’t know, as g More...
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(4 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Alison
rated it:
This story is of Maria. She's in a mental institution or neuropsychaitric center as they were called in the '60's. Her daughter is also commited and is being treated for a chemical imabalance. I think the daughter's around the age of 4. Maria's seen some bad stuff in her day, but the straw that broke the camel's back...well, I won't spoil it. But, there was something that she was blamed for...something that she allowed to happen. And that's why she's holed up undergoing psychotherapy. She
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Jun 07, 2008
Amy
rated it:
I picked this book up from the library because of a tag line comparing Didion to Nathanael West. I think the similarity comes from both of their depictions of Hollywood in unfavorable light, however I think West focuses more on the absurdity and dark humor, while Didion's novel tends to point out the emptiness and depravity.
This is the Hollywood of the early 1970s. Driving around freeways, cocktail parties, drugs, sham marriages, one night stands with nobody actors. Maria is a very u More...
This is the Hollywood of the early 1970s. Driving around freeways, cocktail parties, drugs, sham marriages, one night stands with nobody actors. Maria is a very u More...
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Christine
rated it:
Joan Didion is an Author-I-Am-Currently-Obsessed-With. But this novel is only OK. It is very depressing - the tale of a fictional minor actress in the Seventies's crawl through divorce, abortion, grief and adultery with the obligatory final destination: institutionalization. I've read a LOT of this type of stuff and frankly it's been done to death - no pun intended.
What's interesting is knowing that Didion herself was hospitalized at some point, and wondering how much is autobio More...
What's interesting is knowing that Didion herself was hospitalized at some point, and wondering how much is autobio More...
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 31, 2007
Martha
rated it:
Lifes tough when you're a pill popping actress trying to cope with an abortion. Quick and entertaining enough to pass time on subway rides. I had trouble relating or empathizing with the characters in the book, though i had a hunch i'm not supposed to. Maybe its LA that i dont like? It had a Hurly Burly type feel to it, except its not funny. This book probably would have been more effective if i read it when i was 15, when wallowing in depression seemed glamourous. Honestly i had a hard time
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(3 people liked it)
Mar 02, 2010
Zach
rated it:
Oof. The Sheltering Sky meets The Great Gatsby as rewritten by Raymond Carver? Only... even more depressing and bleak than that sounds? Hence the "oof," you know.
Normally I just want books about poor, poor rich people to spare me, but this one worked by never losing sight of the fact that these hedonists were constantly digging their own holes.
Normally I just want books about poor, poor rich people to spare me, but this one worked by never losing sight of the fact that these hedonists were constantly digging their own holes.
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(3 people liked it)
Aug 22, 2007
Phillip
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I think this was the first book by Joan Didion that I read. It's a really taught, arid novel, with very little room to breathe. Since I grew up in Los Angeles, I could really relate to how brilliantly she integrated place in the novel (the story takes place in Los Angeles). She's a great writer, this isn't a bad place to start if you're thinking about checking her out. If you're a non-fiction reader, Salvador is a brilliant meditation on the Reagan-era U.S. (CIA-sponsored) activities in that cou
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 01, 2010
wow. i wasn't sure what i was expecting from this novel, but it wasn't this. i loved it. though i've heard this book described as an "LA book" or a "vegas book", those descriptions do the book no justice at all-- in fact they do it a disservice. because it's really a book about... the human condition? the human soul? isolation? loneliness? fear? desperation? greed? throughout the entire book there is a pervasive feeling of wanting to get out of a situation and trying to escap
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 03, 2012
Libby
rated it:
Didion's writing is wonderfully spare and evocative, the structure is taut and engaging, and the settings, from the Nevada desert to suburban Los Angeles, imbued with meaning and rendered in such beautiful language as to make them living, breathing characters. However, the humans in the story are not nearly so interesting. Apart from a few suggestive monologues at the beginning that give some promise that there is something worth caring about in this story, we follow around a self-absorbed actre
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Dec 02, 2011
kasia
rated it:
Hmm. Star ratings are tricky here. I'm giving it a 3 for my own enjoyment of it, but it probably deserves a four for being so well written.
Although I didn't exactly relish this book, I did read it in one sitting. I love Joan Didion's essays, so I was excited to try a novel. But this is not really my kind of book. If you like Bret Easton Ellis novels, you'll probably love this. If you like reading about rich people wandering aimlessly through their lives and shuddering through the dea More...
Although I didn't exactly relish this book, I did read it in one sitting. I love Joan Didion's essays, so I was excited to try a novel. But this is not really my kind of book. If you like Bret Easton Ellis novels, you'll probably love this. If you like reading about rich people wandering aimlessly through their lives and shuddering through the dea More...
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 21, 2011
Brianne Schiebler
rated it:
Ranked as one of Time's 100 best books of the 20th century, it's the first work of fiction I've read by Didion. She's a master of tone and syntax in the English language. Her prose is trim and elegant, with all the right details. Enough to paint a picture but not so many to crowd. I would locate the genre as a contemporary parlor drama, if your parlor is in Beverly Hills and the apartment on Fountain Avenue you're renting because you have fewer nightmares for a while there is deeper in gritty LA
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Jan 12, 2011
Jordan
rated it:
A book revealing a culture of high materialism and self-centeredness in the mid century, Play it as it Lays by Joan Didon, consequences of overwhelming selfishness. The novel follows the life and failing marriage of Maria, a wealthy actress in southern California, who because of her lifestyle and egotism suffers many consequences including self loathing and defeat.
At the beginning, model turned actress, Maria is asked to write about herself and flashes back to her lowly childhood in Silve More...
At the beginning, model turned actress, Maria is asked to write about herself and flashes back to her lowly childhood in Silve More...
Jun 20, 2010
Troy
rated it:
Wow.
My love for Didion grows and grows.
I had closed my book store but didn't want to go home. My home isn't comfortable; with my bedroom ceiling recently collapsed and half-ass fixed, and my kitchen ceiling collapsed but a few days ago, despite my warning my lazy super and Casper-like building owner that the pipes in my ceiling were damaged and, if not fixed, would result in a collapsed and destroyed kitchen. Anyway, I was hanging out with my friend Red and we had closed More...
My love for Didion grows and grows.
I had closed my book store but didn't want to go home. My home isn't comfortable; with my bedroom ceiling recently collapsed and half-ass fixed, and my kitchen ceiling collapsed but a few days ago, despite my warning my lazy super and Casper-like building owner that the pipes in my ceiling were damaged and, if not fixed, would result in a collapsed and destroyed kitchen. Anyway, I was hanging out with my friend Red and we had closed More...
Jun 14, 2010
The 23rd Page
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jul 30, 2008
Andy
rated it:
"Play It As It Lays" is the end product of an era when Hollywood partied night after night until someone got hurt, like Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger and Jay Sebring. It's the hangover of a Hollywood party when the drugs weren't strong enough and the sex wasn't twisted enough anymore, and a jaded party girl cracks like an egg. Joan Didion put it all on paper, warts and Hollywood crazies and all. I can almost see the tinted aviator sunglasses, brown suede jackets, and feathered hair.
May 02, 2011
Maria
rated it:
I'm a little at a loss as to how to describe this story. There's a lot of drug use by all the characters--it was 1970, after all--and that's how the story felt to me: like what happens in the odd, lucid gaps between the black outs. The story happens out of linear order, and this adds to the intense discomfort or strong sense of dissociation. Many have called this book a brilliant masterpiece written with surgeon-like precision, but I still can't say that I "get" what happens or why;
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Jan 12, 2011
Bryan
rated it:
If you're looking for a pick me up, I might recommend watching It's A Wodnerful Life. What I would not do, is hand you a copy of Play it as it Lays, my 26th book from Time Magazine's list of 100 great English novels. Simply put, this story was a downer. The story was depressing, the characters were depressing, the settings were depressing; it was like watching a car wreck, in the rain, while being hungover.
The story follows Maria, a B-List actress whose life seems to be in tatters More...
The story follows Maria, a B-List actress whose life seems to be in tatters More...
Dec 12, 2011
Paul
rated it:
Awesome. Liked it even better the second time around. This inspired a generation of (er, a few) women writers, especially Mary Robison, and also Lydia Davis and Amy Hempel. What's great here is the self-conscious, post-1970s (i.e. 1980s) ness that's there in all three of those writers, all of whom I love, is totally absent here; Didion is dead serious, and there's an added weight to the narrative as a result. I guess you could call this one depressing, but I'd just call it moving. The consensus
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Sep 13, 2011
Mark
rated it:
Maria (Mar-Eye-Ah) Wyeth is an unsuccessful actress, locked in a destructive marriage to film director Carter Lang and surrounded by ‘friends’ who don’t have her best interests at heart with the only bright spot in her life being her daughter Kate, institutionalised by an “aberrant chemical in her brain”. The book, told in 84 tightly written chapters, tracks Maria’s life, from the death of her mother through to the suicide of her friend BZ, told whilst she is recovering from a breakdown. Touch
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Jul 07, 2011
Angel
rated it:
Amazing. I was not expecting to like this book, it is set in a place of which I have no positive association. But that is a part of the brilliance of this book - it presents to the reader a place, without commenting on the morality of it, and by doing so allows the reader to recognize that this place is less a location and more a reality inside us all.
This book was described by reviewers as "terrifying." While reading it, I was constantly anticipating the part that would ho More...
This book was described by reviewers as "terrifying." While reading it, I was constantly anticipating the part that would ho More...
