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A review by ibartleby
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
5.0
"As if in a trance Maria watched the woman, for it seemed to her then that she was watching the dead still center of the world, the quintessential intersection of nothing"
"I used to ask questions, and I got the answer: nothing. The answer is 'nothing.'"
I don't know what to say about this book. Maybe there's nothing to say. Nothing is, after all, the answer. I read some reviews and one reviewer said something like, "don't read this book if you're depressed." Solid advice.
Didion's writing is fantastic. She never reveals too much. You get glimpses here and there, snippets, short scenes where dialogue or a few descriptive sentences sharpen the picture. Perfect style for a book that's set in Hollywood but isn't really about Hollywood. The plain (I mean this in the best possible way) and poignant style really drives home and makes palpable for the reader the narrator's overwhelming anhedonia. There are very few writers I've read who successfully and paradoxically make the reader feel "nothing" and make that nothingness tangible and meaningful.
Ultimately, Play It as It Lays reminds me that you can have your material needs met and still be unhappy. The "spiritual" needs are just as—and maybe more—important. Love, meaning and purpose, tend to fill the empty spaces, the nothingness we often feel.
In the book, Maria drives for hours on the California freeway. But she doesn't have a destination. She never goes anywhere. She just drives. I think that's kind of a perfect metaphor for the illusion of freedom of being an American woman in the 1960s and beyond. I’m certain that's what Didion is exploring. And, again, Hollywood is the perfect backdrop for this. Movies being a simulacrum of life, not the real thing.
"I used to ask questions, and I got the answer: nothing. The answer is 'nothing.'"
I don't know what to say about this book. Maybe there's nothing to say. Nothing is, after all, the answer. I read some reviews and one reviewer said something like, "don't read this book if you're depressed." Solid advice.
Didion's writing is fantastic. She never reveals too much. You get glimpses here and there, snippets, short scenes where dialogue or a few descriptive sentences sharpen the picture. Perfect style for a book that's set in Hollywood but isn't really about Hollywood. The plain (I mean this in the best possible way) and poignant style really drives home and makes palpable for the reader the narrator's overwhelming anhedonia. There are very few writers I've read who successfully and paradoxically make the reader feel "nothing" and make that nothingness tangible and meaningful.
Ultimately, Play It as It Lays reminds me that you can have your material needs met and still be unhappy. The "spiritual" needs are just as—and maybe more—important. Love, meaning and purpose, tend to fill the empty spaces, the nothingness we often feel.
In the book, Maria drives for hours on the California freeway. But she doesn't have a destination. She never goes anywhere. She just drives. I think that's kind of a perfect metaphor for the illusion of freedom of being an American woman in the 1960s and beyond. I’m certain that's what Didion is exploring. And, again, Hollywood is the perfect backdrop for this. Movies being a simulacrum of life, not the real thing.