Play It As It Lays (FSG Classics)

That alternate world we know as "Hollywood" has always fascinated me, so I had no problem getting interested in this book. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you can accept people and things for what they are ("play it as it lays") without too many moral judgments; and, if it doesn't bother you to read about things like unconventional behavior, vague reality, desolation and despair; then you just might like it. I find myself very sympathetic to the main character, actress Maria Wyeth, and her friend, BZ, a producer involved in her personal life. I relate to many of their feelings and actions. Others will find them guilty of a good deal of wrongdoing. But I say, remove the blinders and you may see yourself in these pages. Technically, the book is an easy read. The prose is concise - one short sentence can generate a volume of pictures - and loaded with bitter wit. One more thing: if, as I have read, this is supposed to be a depiction of the crass and empty society of the late 60's, I don't find that our society has made any progress, since today's average American aspires to little more than owning a gas-guzzling SUV, staying attached to a cell phone and vacationing in DisneyWorld. I'll put today's crassness and emptiness up against that of the 60's any day.

This is a dark story of clashes especially where a woman and the society she is part of clash. The clash is also in this reader’s opinion and what is within this book. It is where the compelling and the grating clash. Yet, the most profound clash is inside the main character Maria. Maria Wyeth is a model and a star, married to Carter Lang, a producer. Their daughter Kate has something wrong with her brain and is put in a special-care institution. Either Kate’s dilemma or the crazy life of the movie business, filled with drugs, sex, and drinking, affects Maria negatively. Not that she doesn’t go along with it. She does everything everyone else does, but she loses herself as the result. Eventually, her marriage fails; she has an abortion and it is beginning of the end for her. What was touching was the relationship between Carter and Maria, two people who really cared for each other but couldn’t make it. They had too much of the Hollywood, other men, other women, and everything destructive coming in between them. Thus, the actress who could make it didn’t make it in any way. On the contrary, insanity claimed her. Ultimately, what Maria did or didn’t do is not the story, but what goes on inside her is. This, the author makes sure the reader feels deeply. Then, what is so amazing is, despite such a dark, dreary, and woebegone plot, the author’s vision of fiction and her crisp and precise writing style dazzle and stun the reader. Did I enjoy the book? No. I don’t like to read about ruined people. But I couldn’t not-finish it either because of the superb writing and the clear insight of the author into her protagonist. At the end, I am really glad I read this book.

I originally discovered Play It as It Lays on a list of books that everyone should read at some point in their life. Thinking this was a pretty prestigious distinction, I quickly tried to find it in a local store or thrift shop. Turns out, this book was a lot harder to find than others (not even on Kindle!), making me want it that much more. A novel in snippets, Joan Didion’s Play It as It Lays begins with three passages that are narrated in first person by three of the main characters- Maria, her husband Carter, and their friend Helene. The rest of the book is comprised of 84 pieces of lyrical prose written in the third person from Maria’s point of view. What emerges from these pieces is a glimpse into the blurry world of a depressed, would-be starlet, wife, and mother whose world has essentially fallen apart and stopped. It seemed to me that Maria is an actress with nothing but a lot of money and a lot of time on her hands. She is a beautiful woman with blank eyes that cares about nothing and no one. Her world is bleak and is one you shouldn’t visit for too long otherwise it will completely suck the life out of you. This book made me feel the same way that The Bell Jar did- totally hopeless. Aside from the beautiful lyrical prose Didion presents, I think the inner struggle in Maria is what makes the story worth reading. The book covers topics such as depression, drugs, abortion, and affairs. Keep in mind that this book first came out in the 1970’s, and think of what a shock this must have been. I imagine women and their friends secretly passed this book around in a shushed manner, gossiping and discussing the taboo topics Didion covered. This book was the hangover of a 1970’s Hollywood party- the booze wasn’t strong enough, cars not fast enough, and people not interesting enough anymore. There was bleakness to the world after everyone partied too hard for too long and Maria was the perfect person to portray that through. This book was simply an ugly, beautiful disaster. And Didion put it all down on paper for us to be depressed about for years to come.

This is a bleak and devastating look at a culture where people have become completely numb, unaware of anyone beyond themselves and, therefore, so soulless that there's not much to like about themselves. In fact, none of the characters are likable and, other than that brief authorial comment, there's not much of a redeeming vision to be found. I kind of admired the book's very savagery, but it was ultimately just so dark and hopeless that it was hard to enjoy. However, I couldn't put it down, read it in a few hours and it has stayed with me since. I have the next Didion book ready to read.

I read this Didion's book as I was reading "the year of magical thinking" and i felt as if I were in Didion's brain and reading Joan Didion's thoughts. The book has a fast pace, it's full of air and light but it's bark and full of deep suffering. The characters are are well defined and their actions consequent. I love Didion's writing, I loved this book. Lucia Selmi

Envío muy rápido, libro en óptima condición.

Beautiful and very precisely written. A moving read. Few description is given to bring the mood and story across. A lot is left over for the reader to interpret, but not much is needed. I recommend this to anyone that likes Breakfast at Tiffany's, but wanted a closer look.

This is the first book I have read by Joan Didion and it is, in essence, a story we have all heard before. The main character is a washed up actress named Maria Wyeth. This was published in 1970 and really has a sense of that tail-end of the Sixties. The party is over and, beneath the excitement, glitter and glitz of Hollywoood, is the real, dirty truth... Maria's husband, Carter, is still hot in Hollywood, as well as literally hot while filming in the desert. Maria, who has starred in two films, now spends her time melancholy, depressed, listless and aimless. She drives all day, drinks too much, takes drugs, is ageing and aware that she is no longer as beautiful as she once was, nor as famous or desired. Out of work, she is labelled as difficult and often relies on her long-suffering agent to help her. Her daughter has an unnamed disability and her husband holds her as a sort of threat, so she is forced, in the novel, to undertake certain actions in order to continue to see her. With the (fairly recent) Harvey Weinstein revelations, this novel realistically highlights that seedy side of Hollywood, where women are used for casual sex and are the casual victims of violence. Although the novel drifts through scenes, rather than taking the usual linear route, this works well in the sense that it links to the film industry and the way those involved are used, often abused, thrown out and can easily fall out of favour, as well as highlighting the lack of control women have in Hollywood. I thought it a brilliant book and will certainly be exploring more by Joan Didion.

I read this book in college and I feel like I didn't appreciate it enough so I decided to read it again now in my 30s and wow!!!! Maria's story resonates in an exceptional and powerful way. It is not an easy book, it is a complex story that isolates you but at the same time keeps you close and connects with the character in an incredible way. More than a typical story of the boulevard of broken dreams in Hollywood, it is a story of a woman, written by another woman, questioning life and it is a reading that we should all do, 100% recommended.