Play It As It Lays (original 1970; edition 1970)

This is like the Yellow Wallpaper meets Hills Like White Elephants meets Day of the Locust.

Brutal! (In a 4-star way.) Didion is sharp and pointy and I think she is a curmudgeon - which makes me like her even more. The ennui she conveys through Maria is impeccable. A couple of parts were left far too ambiguous (what is the matter with Kate?) which is why it isn't a 5-star rating. The dialogue is brilliant. This book hurts. ( )

You know, I began a try at this review writing about Iago in Othello and the nature of evil.

And about ennui and apathy.

And that the answer is: nothing.

And how I felt deep empathy for Maria.

And then I deleted it all.

This is my review: This novel depressed the fuck out of me.

That, and giving it four stars, should sum it up. ( )

Maria Wyeth is a minor actress whose life is disintegrating in Hollywood, Las Vegas and the desert between the two cities. Play It As It Lays is a bleak elliptical novel. The empty spaces in the novel tell more of the story than the narration. ( )

A fantastic novel depicting the horror associated with a life of substance and history subjected to a society which values superficiality and hypocrisy. Maria Wyeth is a young model/actress in LA, married, for a time anyway, to a marginally successful director. The first few chapters of the novel provide us with insight into individual characters views of Maria's ultimate state, then the novel moves into the complete story according to Maria's point of view.
One should not confuse Didion's journalistic, masculine writing style with an anti-feminist point of view. Maria may be an empty vessel, but it is far more the fault of her surroundings than her own tendencies. Rather it is Didion's sensitivity to Maria's internal "life" which makes her most enchanting a female writer. She compresses metaphysical revelations into seemingly palatable statements, and the reader is advised not to be fooled by short chapters, but to ruminate for a while over every composition. Life itself is what continues us, presents the reason for us to continue to exist, despite our best intentions..