Play It as It Lays, by Joan Didion, follows Maria, an actress in Hollywood struggling to escape the tangle of pointlessness that her life has become. I enjoyed this novel, published in 1970, because Maria is by no means a likable character, but her internal journey became so important to me that I was desperate for her situation to improve. Though Maria tries to escape the mundane and oppressive reality that her Hollywood life becomes, blackmail and engrained societal norms within her stop her from making progress. The book can be a bit confusing at times, but it contains many striking images that left me thinking for a while. The fact that Maria resembles a washed out skeleton of a person really drew me to her more because she really doesn’t seem capable of fixing her situation. This is a book I plan on reading again. The book’s style makes it a quick read, but I found it easy to miss specific details.
This is a pretty cool photo of Didion. Source
Reading the book definitely requires a desire to learn more about Maria and look at her world from her eyes. There is also a very static and stale feeling to Maria’s life that can either really annoy the reader or push her to try to understand why nothing seems real or exciting. I recommend the book to people who like Nathaniel West, or anyone who wants to read a book about Hollywood in the late sixties. Look forward to a disturbing abortion scene (which is actually quite revolutionary for a novel written in 1970) and a trip to the desert. Reading this book with a feminist lens can also lead to a lot of interesting conclusions about Maria and her situation.
My rating: 7/10
(Actually) Lost in Translation 