Play It As It Lays: A Novel
by Joan Didion
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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, ...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, ...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
the curious
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...more
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Read in February, 2007
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 diss...more
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The year is 1970, we're in Hollywood with a failed (by choice) actress named Maria (pronounced Mariah) Wyeth, her director ex-husband, and their small, suffocating group of degraded friends. Maria is beautiful and smart but detached; her behavior is inexplicable and often infuriating to others yet she continues to hang out with them and they continue to seek her out as well. She's like a friend you had and hated but couldn't stop being friends with, you kept wanting her to show you she had some,...more
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Read in April, 2008
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 each pi...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 each pi...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Multiple personalities
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 autobiographica...more
What's interesting is knowing that Didion herself was hospitalized at some point, and wondering how much is autobiographica...more
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Read in July, 2007
The apathy in this book is so perfectly illustrated. In one scene the main character starts driving to calm her nerves. She gets to where she can cross a section of the interstate without ever breaking. She eats a hard-boiled egg with one hand. Didion is one of those authors that breathes new life into American 1960's. She doesn't just tell the story of people dropping out and turning on she tells the story of people who are forced to change and can't handle it. I read this book on a drive to Po...more
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Play It As It Lays has the skeleton of a great novel: an innovative plot structure, shifting narration, Didion's incisive, intelligent prose, and a character whose circumstances should be fascinating. Maria is a Hollywood actress, descended from Nevada gamblers, with the American misfortune of beauty. Unfortunately, even as she divulges the most degraded aspects of her life, I never felt more than a cool, intellectual interest. The story didn't offer enough details for me to uncover its c...more
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Read in December, 2006
recommended to Charlaralotte by:
Found it on house bookshelves
Yeah, I know I read this right before Xmas last year, because I was raving about it, and then my dad and Brother Ben had a conversation about who wants to read a woman's point of view & my brother blogged that the book was like a Lifetime Movie of the Week.
Anyway, I loved this book. It was so much like life in LA, and so much like life when you're f-ing depressed as all get out. I loved it also because it was written not by someone in my generation, but by someone in an older generation ...more
Anyway, I loved this book. It was so much like life in LA, and so much like life when you're f-ing depressed as all get out. I loved it also because it was written not by someone in my generation, but by someone in an older generation ...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
fashionistas and chloe sevigny
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 ...more
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Read in July, 2007
Eff you, Jesse, for saying this reminded you of me. Anyways, our main character Mariah is an actress in LA who's glory days are over, hates her friends, daughter's crazy in that deliciously vague 70s way, and to top it all off has to get a bo-bo when she becomes pregnant after having an affair. Best descriptions of LA's burnt out sun-scorched emptiness I've ever read. Falls apart towards the end, as the repetitive nihilistic ennui of Mariah's days starts to wear thin, but this, too, is true to L...more
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Read in June, 2007
The bookjacket describes Play It As It Lays as "a profoundly disturbing novel."
Well, that's true, but it's also a very good one. Didion tells the story of one woman caught in the midst of a vicious Hollywood society lifestyle in the 60's, with all the sex, drugs, depression and alienation that entails. Unlike other novels about the 60's, though, Didion moves quickly and unrepetitively through her story, refusing to wallow in the meaninglessness of her characters' lives and inst...more
Well, that's true, but it's also a very good one. Didion tells the story of one woman caught in the midst of a vicious Hollywood society lifestyle in the 60's, with all the sex, drugs, depression and alienation that entails. Unlike other novels about the 60's, though, Didion moves quickly and unrepetitively through her story, refusing to wallow in the meaninglessness of her characters' lives and inst...more
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Read in March, 1999
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...more
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Read in December, 2007
I love Joan Didion but here's a piece of advice - not a warm holiday read unless you have some wine around. Pretty heavy subject matter and a bit disturbing but I am usually drawn to that. Reads like a screenplay, most chapters not more that 4 pages long. Sharp writing and great details, I could see how this would play out on film which makes sense since she wrote some screenplays with her husband.
Recommend to those interested in becoming more familiar with her work. I've read mostly her no...more
Recommend to those interested in becoming more familiar with her work. I've read mostly her no...more
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Read in March, 2008
Joan Didion depresses the hell out of me. This book is bleak, and sometimes beautiful. Maria (Mar-EYE-ahh) is a failing actress in late 1960s LA. She likes to drive her fast car, drown her sorrows in barbiturates, and reiterate to herself (and us) that nothing is important. I liked the setting most of all-- the post-modern LA houses, the Nevada desert towns, and the freeway in between. Play It As It Lays is short and worth reading for what Didion can do with language alone, but also a downe...more
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at 213 minimal pages, two sessions took care of the novel, though an afternoon at a cafe would suffice.
the copy i have has an introduction, and while i've been ignoring these things since college--until after reading the book--i still wonder why they're called "introductions" and not "retrospectives" wedged in after the last period.
the intro is sort of a strange blob tacked on. i'd advise not reading it, especially if you know about didion already.
the novel is gre...more
the copy i have has an introduction, and while i've been ignoring these things since college--until after reading the book--i still wonder why they're called "introductions" and not "retrospectives" wedged in after the last period.
the intro is sort of a strange blob tacked on. i'd advise not reading it, especially if you know about didion already.
the novel is gre...more
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This book is dark. Powerfully dark and self-destructive. But, I love dark. And I LOVE Didion- she is such a powerful writer. Her characters are lucid and gritty and raw and I love them for that and the landscape she paints. I find her portraiture of Los Angeles and in particular Hollywood in this novel speaks to the underbelly of reality that is seething underneath the City of Angels. So few people know it, but those that do are in love with Los Angeles despite its proclivities towards madn...more
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I read this book almost 30 years ago - it's remarkable to think it (I!) am that old. I have never lost the experience of it. I sat in the basement cafe in the Science Building at University and couldn't leave until I had finished it. I couldn't leave then either though because I had been made physically ill from my experience. I had been somewhere else. I had been someone else living a different life. And the stress of it had made me physically ill. No book had caught me so thoroughly before and...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
girls who read Sylvia Plath in high school... jk?
I'm over half-way done and just started this morning [luv summer!]. After I finish it tonight, I will probably read it again tomorrow. This is the first Didion I've ever read and I must say, leaves a pleasant aroma and makes me excited to read more. She's a good writer, awesome even, and writes this picture of LA as this tragic, desolate place that still has this beautiful appeal: YES. THIS is what LA is like, this is why I LOVE LA when other people hate it! This is why I'm moving to LA to write...more
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Joan Didion stated of this novel that she wanted to write something that disappeared from memory as you read it. The book is a negation of itself - filled with short chapters, short sentences, and pages filled with blank space. Also, it's filled with the question - "Why?" "Why" is the great cancellation - it destroys everything that comes before it. When you're done, the leaves a negative space - not even a ghost, but an impression where a ghost was. Somehow, you'll love
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.91 (1312 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.91 (1264 ratings) number of reviews: 180popular shelves
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