Play It as It Lays
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Book Overview
A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Joan Didion's 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.Customer Reviews
Rated 5 starsexcellent
this book is lovely. if you enjoyed my year of rest and relaxation this is for you. emotionally disturbed woman orphaned in their 20s moving through life where it takes them, sometimes on substances
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Rated 5 starsFavorite Author
Joan Didion is the best contemporary writer I know. Good books are meant to be reread to reveal something new about the reader. I have reread this book at least 6 or 7 times and each time I "see" something different and insightful about Maria and her sad and tragic life. I'm still trying to figure out what is the attraction to this short novel. It must be the writing style that sucks you into the unfolding of a story of what...
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Rated 5 starsOut there where nothing is
"Play It As It Lays" takes us to the rarified world of Hollywood and La-la Land, where life is fast, flat, and apparently as empty as the souls of some of its inhabitants. At the center of the book is Maria Wyeth, who at 31 is on the far side of the big 3-0 dividing line; orphaned when her parents are killed in a car crash, divorced from her film-director husband, the mother of a handicapped, institutionalized child, a sometime...
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Rated 5 starsOut there where nothing is
"Play It As It Lays" takes us to the rarified world of Hollywood and La-la Land, where life is fast, flat, and apparently as empty as the souls of some of its inhabitants. At the center of the book is Maria Wyeth, who at 31 is on the far side of the big 3-0 dividing line; orphaned when her parents are killed in a car crash, divorced from her film-director husband, the mother of a handicapped, institutionalized child, a sometime...
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Rated 5 starsMy first glimpse of my favorite author
I was in my last year of high school when I read this book and it remains one of my most treasured books. Didion's precise images in Play It As It Lays compelled me to run out and read each essay and book I could get my hands on. Sometimes I pick it up and read the book from cover to cover, other times just my favorite parts. This book tells a story that - while distressing - you absolutely must devour!
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Play It as It Lays Mentions in Our Blog
Mysteries, sci-fi, history, kidlit, YA, and more! Happy 50th birthday to these great titles! Whether perfect representations of their era or timeless works of art, these twelve books still resonate.
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