Play It As It Lays: A Novel - Hardcover

Didion, Joan

3.92

66,839 ratings by Goodreads

9780374234447: Play It As It Lays: A Novel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374234442 ISBN 13: 9780374234447

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1970

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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.

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Review:

‘She writes with a razor.’ New York Times

‘A pioneer of New Journalism, she brilliantly chronicled America’s cultural and political life.’ Guardian

‘Didion's mordant lucidity is like L.A. sunlight, a thing so bright sometimes it hurts.’ Time

PRAISE FOR THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
'Her poetic writing has a spell-like charm that is profoundly affecting.' Observer

'this brave book maps a year...when the world flipped over to expose the underside of cool where things go bad.’ The Times

'The subject may be bleak, but her tender treatment makes it a book that we should all read.' Daily Mail

From the Back Cover:

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, 'Play It As It Lays' captures the mood of an entire generation. Joan Didion chose Hollywood to serve as her microcosm of contemporary society and exposed a culture characterized by emptiness and ennui.

Maria Wyeth is an emotional drifter who has become almost anesthetized against pain and pleasure. She finds herself, in her early thirties, radically divorced from husband, lover, friends, her own past and her own future. Actress, daughter, wife, mother, woman: she has played each role to the sound of one hand clapping.

'Play It As It Lays' is set in a place beyond good and evil, literally in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the barren wastes of the Mojave, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul. Two decades after its original publication, it remains a profoundly disturbing novel.

‘’There hasn’t been another American writer of Joan Didion’s quality since Nathanael West...A terrifying book.’’
JOHN LEONARD, 'New York Times'

‘‘Didion is a better writer than Cheever.’’
ANGELA CARTER, 'Guardian'

‘‘A writer of haunting power and global vision who sees a world on the edge of nervous breakdown and is not afraid to deliver the news.’’
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

‘‘Joan Didion’s acupuncture prose hits cells we didn’t know we had and reinvigorates our entire sensibility. She circles her characters and key events as she might a dangerous snake.’’
JILL NEVILLE, 'Sunday Times'

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