''Play It as It Lays'' is a 1970 novel by the American writer

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won ...

. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine included the novel in its " 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005". About the book, Joan Didion said, "I didn’t think it was going to make it ..And suddenly it did make it, in a minor way. And from that time on I had more confidence." The book was made into a 1972 movie starring

Tuesday Weld Tuesday Weld (born Susan Ker Weld; August 27, 1943) is an American actress and model. She began acting as a child and progressed to mature roles in the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960. Over t ...

as Maria and

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor, director, and singer. Perkins is best remembered for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller '' Psycho'', which made him an influentia ...

as BZ. Didion co-wrote the screenplay with her husband,

John Gregory Dunne John Gregory Dunne (May 25, 1932 – December 30, 2003) was an American writer. He began his career as a journalist for ''Time'' magazine before expanding into writing criticism, essays, novels, and screenplays. He often collaborated with his wif ...

Plot introduction

The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 31-year-old Maria Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film producer Carter Lang. The further narration is conducted from a third-person perspective in eighty-four chapters of terse, controlled and highly visual prose typical of Didion.

Plot

Maria's story begins as she is recovering from a mental breakdown in a psychiatric hospital in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

area, but soon flashes back to her life before the hospital. A not-quite lurid view of life in Hollywood follows. Didion's late 1960s Los Angeles is a mix of grimness and glamour. Maria's journey oscillates between dizzying and domestic, as her acting career slows and her personal life collapses. Maria contrasts her life in Los Angeles with her childhood in Silver Wells,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, a small town so inconsequential that it no longer exists. The daughter of a neurotic mother and a gambling father and who bet on a mine and lost, Maria moved to New York to become an actress. In New York, Maria works temporarily as a model and meets Ivan Costello, a psychopathic blackmailer who has no hesitation exploiting Maria for her money or her body. In New York, Maria receives news of her mother's death in a car wreck, possibly a suicide. Her father dies soon after, leaving useless mineral rights to his business partner and friend Benny Austin. Maria withdraws from acting and modeling, splits up with Ivan, and eventually meets Carter and moves to Hollywood. Later, we find that she and Carter have a four-year-old daughter Kate, who is under mental and physical "treatment" for some "aberrant chemical in her brain". Maria truly loves Kate, as indicated by her tender descriptions, her frequent hospital visits, and her determination "to get her out". An inevitable divorce, and the ensuing social chaos bring Maria to indulge in self-destructive behavior. She plunges into long nights of compulsive driving, wandering

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

's freeways, through motels and bars, drinking and chancing sexual encounters with actors and ex-lovers. After a series of disasters for Maria, infidelity among her friends adds further chaos to her life. Her friend BZ commits suicide and Maria is institutionalized. From her hospital, Maria turns her visitors away, and plans for a day she might see her daughter again.

References

External Links

Book page on the official website
{{Authority control 1970 American novels American novels adapted into films Novels set in California Novels by Joan Didion Novels about actors Hollywood novels