Apr 2

Apr 2 Play It As It Lays

Author: Joan Didion
Publisher: FSG (current paperback edition; first published 1970)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil — literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul — it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.

TL;DR Review

Play It As It Lays, even 50 years after its original publication, remains an echoing and unsettling novel with lots to chew on. I was glad I read it as part of a reading group.

For you if: You like books that leave a lot of room for the reader to insert their own interpretation.

Full Review

“What makes Iago evil? Some people ask. I never ask.”

This was my first novel by Joan Didion, and I read it as part of a formal, instructor-led reading group with the Center for Fiction. I was glad I did! Play It As It Lays has a ton of layers, lots to peel back, lots to explore. Definitely one of those books where it’s especially helpful to have others to discuss it with.

The story itself is about a woman named Mariah in Hollywood in the 1960s. She had one or two acting jobs but became especially noteworthy as the wife of a famous producer. The two have an unwell four-year-old daughter who lives full-time at a mental health institution. Longing for her daughter, wistful about life, and jealous of her husband’s success, Mariah lives in a very in-between state of life, alternating between just sort of floating through it and self-destructing. Narratively, we barrel toward a hinted-at, tragic ending.

This is a very fast read; only four hours on audio. During my class’s discussion about the book, we talked a lot about it being “disembodied.” It has a very eerie, surface-level type of feeling that really leaves a ton of room for a reader to insert themselves and interpret as they will. But where Didion really shines is, as always, at the level of the sentence.

While I wouldn’t say this is a favorite, I did enjoy it (especially after having processed it more with a group), and I’m glad I read it. Up next in our class: Slouching Toward Bethlehem!