Details
Rent Play It As It Lays
Author:
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
Published: Nov 2005
Genre: Fiction - Literary
Retail Price: $18.00
Pages: 232
Synopsis
Maria Wyeth, an actress in Los Angeles, is stumbling through her life after the trauma of an abortion that was forced on her by her husband. Her marriage ends, as does the love affair she was involved in, and she is unable to prevent the suicide of a good friend. Clinging to her only child, a mentally damaged daughter named Kate, the nihilistic Maria struggles to stay afloat in a world marked by shallow frivolity and a complete absence of values. Much of the story centers on Maria's compulsive driving through the mojave Desert, as she meditates on the hollowness of the film world and, by extension, American culture. Joan Didion's lean and cool-headed novel was a sensation when it was originally published in 1971.
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Reviews
I thought this was one of the most bizzarre books that I've ever read. I kept wanting to stop reading it, but I sort of have a rule, that I always finish a book that I start. I think that the reason that it was so sensational when it was published is because it exploited so many taboo behaviors, and had a certain shock value. However the characters, especially Maria, the main character, are so unlikeable and hopeless, that the book was very difficult for me to enjoy.