Joan Didion wastes no words. This novel is slim because she only says what must be said, and the reader must make the connections and draw the conclusions. It starts at the end with a few chapters from the points of view of other characters, then shifts into the story from Maria Wyeth's point of view. It is a picture of a depressed woman in a fake society, late 1960s Los Angeles and Las Vegas. An era with drugs and sex, movie stars in the desert and psychiatric hospitals for children, but no access to legal abortion.

(That requires a sidenote - is this the first novel I've read where the main character has an abortion? I can't think of another one. Isn't that strange, considering how many women have them? And since this one was under the table it was pretty difficult to read those parts, with the trauma to her body. Her psyche was already messed up.)

I had only read a few things of Didion before but I have this feeling that I will like her more and more as I age. I read The Year of Magical Thinking before I'd experienced any grief of my own. Oh how the reading experience would change just five years later. We studied the essay "The White Album" from the collection of essays The White Album when I took the creative non-fiction class and I knew I had to read more of her. She is not afraid to write what nobody else will say and she never sugar coats it.

so slay, made me realize i don't hate LA as much as i think i do

the only book I've read that truly encapsulates the word "ennui". Definitely wasn't in the right mental state to read this but couldn't put it down. Feeling horrible now–5 stars.

Een doodlopend leven geschetst met een paar doeltreffende vegen waterverf. Sublieme dialogen en zo dicht op de huid geschreven dat je als lezer naar adem snakt. Bijna alles is suggestie in deze fragmentarische novelle over het grote niets. Maar het gewilde gebrek aan distantie en reflectie maakt het ook eendimensionaal en vluchtig als een boze droom.

When I finished reading this book the other day, I suddenly realized that I hadn't really appreciated it correctly. That I needed to reread it right away because I hadn't read it the right way and because there is a lot that you don't have enough information to make sense of the first time around.

I don't understand how people can call this book cold and sterile. I just thought it was so rich and textured and heartbreaking. I feel like the little chapters are like puzzle pieces and each piece is a sort of tone poem or a meditation or an evocation and when you place the pieces together what's between the pieces is just about devastating.

***

One thing in my defense, not that it matters: I know something Carter never knew, or Helene, or maybe you. I know what "nothing" means, and keep on playing.
Why, BZ would say.
Why not, I say.

An episodic, concise and precise investigation of a movie starlet’s mental breakdown. The prose is icily calm and detached and utterly brilliant. Each short section stands alone, never directly connected to those on either side, reflecting Maria’s (pronounced ma-RYE-ah) fragmented state of mind and grip on reality.

Maria is onto her second marriage, which is falling apart with both parties freely finding their sexual connections elsewhere, her daughter is under medical care for a neurological condition, her husband has paid for an abortion to get rid of an inconvenience that’s not his, Maria is losing her footing in life.

Didion’s prose in this book is utterly wonderful -it flows as though it weren’t written but put directly into the brain, it’s so easy to read while still full of nuance, direction, characterisation and subtlety. Maria’s life, choices and actions are never judged, simply observed and placed before the reader for them to consider however they will.

Until she died earlier this year, I’d never come across Didion. Reading this, I can see why she was so admired.

I remember when I read Where I Was From a couple years ago, Didion referred a lot to her novel Play It As It Lays and I thought it sounded really bad. About a year ago I found an old edition someplace with this enormous and brain-numbingly awesome picture of Didion with her cigarette and legendarily icy, ironical stare. I really came close to buying it just because of that image on the back, but then I had a real stern confrontation with myself in the used fiction aisle about the folly and immaturity of buying a book I'd never want to read just for the author photo.

Well, silly me. Yesterday I found myself the grudging owner of a deeply unappealing FSG reprint that looks like an, I don't know, J. T. Leroy book or something else totally inappropriate and awful and contemporary. No fun at all! So it's funny to be reading something I never thought I'd have any interest in, but isn't that sort of the essence of maturity? I feel like I've sort of grown into Joan Didion. She used to epitomize all these things I hated, but now I find a lot of that same stuff pretty appealing.... story of my life, right? Story of most of ours, probably.

But anyway, yeah, this book. Well, I didn't have such a strong reaction to it, but like everything of Ms. Didion's I've read, I found it very well-written. I'd recommend this to anyone who liked Less Than Zero, who thinks they might enjoy essentially the same nihilistic LA-story more if it were set in the sixties, about a grown woman instead of a teenage boy, written by a better writer. I'd also recommend this to people who loved Valley of the Dolls yet who cling to certain literary pretensions. Since both these definitely describe me, it's not surprising that I did enjoy this book. I mean, it's a beautiful-woman-crashing-to-pieces yarn, and everyone loves those, don't they? No? Well, then don't waste your time. Read some of her essays instead.

really easy to read + loved her harsh discussion on abortion, especially at the time

4.5☆ i devoured this in mostly in one sitting. I’ve never done that before. Maybe its due to this books short length, but I think it shows how amazing this book is. This book follows actress Maria Wyeth through her life in the 60s until she is eventually institutionalized. It delves into such important topics that may have been deemed too “taboo” to write about especially during the time period this was written, such as mental illness, infidelity, and abortion. Joan Didion is an intelligent writer and I found her style of writing to be so easy to digest and just overall so compelling.

Romanzo intenso costituito da unità narrative brevissime, dove ogni singola parola si stacca dal fondo formando un mosaico poetico di sorprendente potenza. L’ambientazione californiana non si concede alcuna frivolezza, fornendo una visione disincantata della vita che gravita attorno a Hollywood. La storia descrive il vuoto e il dolore, compagni costanti della protagonista Maria, che sfreccia senza meta per i deserti americani in cerca di un sollievo che non potrà mai trovare.
Struggente e bellissimo, è un libro che annichilisce.
Joan Didion, che l’ha scritto nel 1970 influenzando poi l'opera di Bret Easton Ellis, è stata riscoperta di recente dal mercato editoriale italiano.

reread: just so good i love a nihilistic summer read.

——————

through hazy vignettes and tightly controlled prose,  play it as it lays tells the story of one woman’s downward spiral in late 60s los angeles. recently divorced from her film producer husband, estranged from her institutionalised daughter, and out of work from acting, maria’s life is stuck in a limbo of alienation, loneliness, and chronic desolation. what follows is a searing portrait of american life and the female experience in the 1960s, an era characterised by its severe limitations placed on women’s autonomy.

the book is, in didion’s own words, exploring a character who is ‘coming to terms with the meaninglessness of experience’. recalling the teachings of her father, maria lethargically drifts in and out of her world with the perspective that life is nothing but a game - a game she nihilistically accepts she will never win, but a game she continues to play nonetheless. disillusioned and detached from every aspect of her life, maria’s only semblance of control comes from her daily drives on the california freeway, a clear metaphor for her attempts to escape a directionless and empty life.

it is unequivocally an american novel, perfectly exemplifying the burnt-out cultural wasteland of 1960s california and its ennui. although didion worked on this book for years,  play it as lays feels bound by its cultural context at its time of publication in 1970, capturing the californian malaise after the violent end to the summer of 1969 with the tate–labianca murders.

i had only ever read didion’s non-fiction before this and despite owning this book for a while, i seemed to keep putting it off because of the fear that her foray into fiction may not compare. however, i now understand how wrong i was, because didion’s pen shines just as brightly in fiction as it does in non-fiction. this fictional account of maria and its cast of characters is just as compelling as didion’s usual essay subjects, with delicately crafted characters and unflinching yet also incredibly witty dialogue.

play it as it lays is bleak, nihilistic, and quite frankly depressing, but it’s worth it to experience the brilliance of joan didion’s writing once again.

—————

i am not californian or american nor was i alive in the 60s, but i just GET it

All right, let's discuss...

It has been a month since I read this little ditty, and in that one month's time, it has managed to lose a star. Because honestly, I can't give a book 5 stars just because I couldn't put it down, just because it was a "quick read." If that was the standard, every Jodi Picoult book I've ever read would be given 5 stars.

When it comes down to it, while I did thoroughly enjoy this book, it isn't one that's going to stay with me through the ages. It isn't one I'm going to recommend to you or you or you. Although I'm sure you'd enjoy it. Or not.

One of my GR friends told me that this book is a favorite of The National front man/songwriter Matt Berninger (I haven't been able to find corroboration of this on the interwebs, but I'll take your word for it). Loving The National like I do, I figured I'd give it a shot.

I guess in retrospect this book feels a little self-indulgent to me. It's a story of a poor sad little actress with nothing but a lot of money and a lot of time on her hands. Ever met a beautiful girl with dead eyes and an expressionless face who doesn't care about anything or anyone? Well that's Maria Wyeth for you. Her world is a bleak one that you really shouldn't visit for very long, because she's the kind of girl who will suck the life right out of you. Unless you're a nihilist. Then you should pull up a chair and stay awhile; you'll feel right at home.

****
This has absolutely nothing to do with the book, but you should listen to it anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FIw7E...

****
March 20, 2017 - I was right. I remember nothing about this book. I should take away another star!