Play It As It Lays (FSG Classics)

This book is SUUUPER depressing, but incredibly well written!

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.

This is a novel published in 1970 about a troubled young lady on the fringe of success as an actress. It is a very celebrated novel in some quarters. Personally, I found it a difficult and slow read. I have seldom started a novel with such positive expectations and felt so disappointed. I loved Joan Didion's first novel, "Run, River". This novel, "Play It As It Lays" seems more celebrated. I relished the chance to read it. Honestly, what I liked most about it is that it was short, sort of the reading experience equivalent of euthanasia. This occasionally happens to me. A writer, Thomas Pynchon comes to mind, is seemingly revered by some critics, writes a book that I can barely read; "V" as an example., although I did enjoy a different book of his, "The Crying of Lot 49". This has happened to me with other authors such as Toni Morrison. I have concluded that some readers simply have a greater ability to appreciate certain artistic aspects of literature that I lack. "Play It As It Lays" is on the list of the best 100 American novels since the beginning of Time Magazine 1923. Frankly I find that bewildering. "Run, River" is not on that list. In summary, I although I am positive some readers will enjoy this work, alas, I am not among them. I intend to keep reading Joan Didion's work, as I positively love "Run, River". Thank You...

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.

Couldn’t find the book in my country until I thought of buying it from Amazon great app thanks

If you like Joan Didion, you will probably like Play It As It Lays. I had only read shorter pieces by her, and always liked her voice, so I wanted to read the book that made her famous. This is not a book that tells the A Star is Born Hollywood narrative, but rather a portrait of a place, a time, and a socio-economic class. The book follows a wealthy, white woman who is a Hollywood wife in late 1960s Los Angeles. Her husband is successful, but they have a contemptuous relationship and are nearing a divorce. The Los Angeles areas portrayed are the rarified enclaves reserved for the very privileged - Brentwood, Bel-Air, Malibu, and Beverly Hills. She drives a lot on the freeways to sort of lose herself, and she does this on drugs and alcohol, seemingly having a murderous death wish. There is not a strong narrative here. Not much happens, aside from parties and a small amount of sex, it is mostly conversations she has with friends and movement from here to there. There is a plot, but it is loose, and I found myself sort of ambling through the story as I read. It kept me interested, mainly for the time and place, but did I care about the protagonist? Not much. She was troubled, and so was her husband, who came off a little better than she did, frankly. I know some Hollywood people, and they are not all so bitter and jaded. They can be a bit pretentious, but I think that comes with money. This is an interesting read for some. You don't really enjoy reading this book. You read it because the writing is great, and it comes from an authentic place, that just happens to be rather superficial to begin with. I think it is a classic of Los Angeles literature.

I can see why this book is so highly rated. It goes into the mind of a clinically depressed woman and shows the world from her perspective. But I really could not enjoy this book. It's depressing, the characters (being wealthy actors and actresses to whom infidelity and drugs was normal) were very unrelatable. I really would not recommend this book to anyone unless they are specifically interested in studying the writing style of this book. It is simply not enjoyable to read.

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

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.

Muito tardiamente resolvi dar uma chance à escrita de Joan Didion. Comecei no ano passado com um dos seus livros mais conhecidos, o ótimo "Rastejando Até Belém". Mas confesso que meu interesse por não ficção é bem restrito, de maneira que resolvi buscar seus romances e acabei indo parar neste "Play It As It Lays" (uma expressão que poderia livremente ser traduzida com algo como "dançar conforme a música"), publicado em 1970. O romance tem como protagonista Maria Wyeth, 31 anos, uma atriz de relativo sucesso. No primeiro capítulo da obra - o único narrado por Maria em primeira pessoa -, ficamos sabendo que ela está internada em uma clínica psiquiátrica. A obra, então, retrocede no tempo para mostrar os eventos que levaram Maria até ali, começando pelo rápido declínio de seu casamento com um poderoso produtor - ou diretor - de Hollywood, com quem ela tem uma filha de 4 anos com problemas mentais, que vive internada em uma clínica. Após uma gravidez inesperada, que Maria não sabe se causada pelo marido ou pelo amante, ela se vê forçada a fazer um aborto (ainda ilegal na época), o que acaba sendo o estopim de sua "temporada no inferno", para citar Rimbaud. Poucas vezes a apatia e o niilismo foram tão bem expressos em um livro quanto neste romance, e aqui quem está falando é um fã de Bret Easton Ellis (por sinal, um fã de carteirinha de Didion). Os capítulos curtos, nem sempre interligados, reforçam o distanciamento da realidade e a absoluta inércia que abatem a protagonista. De quebra, ainda temos uma sátira mordaz ao mundinho da Hollywood dos final dos anos 60, escancarando o ambiente predatório, falso e tóxico da indústria do entretenimento. Sem contar a ambientação em Los Angeles/Las Vegas, que são praticamente personagens do romance, um cenário tão bem apresentado que não fica devendo nada a Eve Babitz, a "rival" de Didion. Uma leitura espetacular, que desde já entra para a galeria dos meus livros favoritos da vida. Chega a ser surreal que uma escritora com um romance desses no currículo seja majoritariamente conhecida por sua não ficção. Mais surreal ainda é que o romance nunca tenha sido publicado no Brasil.

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.