A review by flara
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was an intense read. Like a tornado, it came out of nowhere. It kept on gaining intensity until it swept me away. There are passages in this book that are brutally sharp; they might as well cut through me. I understood Kate, her feelings.. or lack thereof. I believe Play It As It Lays was set in the 1960s, and yet it didn't feel aged. It felt very contemporary, disturbingly so. I enjoyed every single page of this very confusing, very tense, very dark novel. It's one of very few books that I regretted having finished reading.

SpoilerI have this funny thing with Didion: every book that I have picked up so far ended up being very on theme. First I read The Magical Year of Thinking, and felt I could not relate due to lack of life experience with grief. Not a month later my grandfather became gravely ill, and died shortly after. That's when I picked up Blue Nights. Kate has an illegal abortion in Play It As It Lays, which I started reading just as Roe v Wade has been overturned. Crazy how a book from 60 years ago could be so relevant to the current affairs of today. 


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