A review by sophee_568
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book put me in a dreadful mood. The most noticeable theme in the book is depression. The main character is Maria Wyatt, a wannabe actress who divorces her husband, the director of her only two movies. They have a daughter who suffers from an unnamed illness and is hospitalized in some kind of institution. The book follows her life and her interaction with a group of people, whom I can't say are friends of hers. She is noticeably depressed, drinks a lot, drives her corvette on the highway every day, and is in love with a man she cannot have. As we follow her life and the decline of her mental well-being, we're taking a glimpse into the microscopic scale of American society in the 60s. This is quite the bleak novel, but that serves the purpose of having the reader experience what it is like to be clinically depressed (which is why I had to take a long walk after finishing this book). I must admit I didn't like nor understand this book until about 60% in. I thought it was boring, unsatisfying, empty, but then it hit me that that was the whole point and that made the book better. This is the second Didion book I read, the first being The Year of Magical Thinking, and I prefer this one. Somehow this book has more soul in it, even though it's fiction.
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