Why D loves this book
Written in Joan Didion's unique, razor-sharp style, Play It as It Lays snapshots 1960's Hollywood and explores the nihilistic, uncaring and frankly depressing illusion that was and probably still is much of tinseltown. Centred around Maria Wyeth, who some say was at least partly autobiographical, the cast of characters are beautifully depicted, their vicious interactions and intentions carefully laid bare.
I knew little about the author and her work before picking up this slim volume, but polished it off in an afternoon and was left wanting more, much more.
5 authors picked Play It as It Lays as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A profoundly disturbing novel that ruthlessly dissects American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking.
Benny called for a round of Cuba Libres and I gave him some chips to play for me and went to the ladies' room and never came back.
Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, hollowed-out actress Maria Wyeth's life plays out in a numbing routine of perpetual freeway driving. In her early thirties, divorced from her husband, dislocated from friends, anesthetized to pain and please, Wheth is a woman who has run out of both desires…
