Description

A ruthless and unflinching examination of American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking.

One thing in my defence, not that it matters: I know what ‘nothing’ means, and keep on playing

Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, hollowed-out actress Maria Wyeth’s life plays out in a numbing routine of perpetual freeway driving. In her early thirties, divorced from her husband, dislocated from friends, anesthetized to pain and pleasure, Wheth is a woman who has run out of both desires and motives – the epitome of a generation made ill by too much freedom.

More than five decades after its original publication, Play it as it Lays remains a profoundly disturbing novel that ruthlessly dissects American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking.

Publisher Review

'She writes with a razor.' New York Times 'A pioneer of New Journalism, she brilliantly chronicled America's cultural and political life.' Guardian 'Didion's mordant lucidity is like L.A. sunlight, a thing so bright sometimes it hurts.' Time PRAISE FOR THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING 'Her poetic writing has a spell-like charm that is profoundly affecting.' Observer 'this brave book maps a year...when the world flipped over to expose the underside of cool where things go bad.' The Times 'The subject may be bleak, but her tender treatment makes it a book that we should all read.' Daily Mail