Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

In April we will be reading Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion for our State of the Nation category - who's in?

I'm in. Planning to start later in the month.

I read this in February so I’ll pop back later in the month to comment.

I finished. Not sure what to say about it. I can see why it's on the list. I didn't enjoy reading it (I don't have to, but it helps), but it has a way of sticking with you.

My review

***

An episodic, concise and precise investigation of a movie starlet’s mental breakdown. The prose is icily calm and detached and utterly brilliant. Each short section stands alone, never directly connected to those on either side, reflecting Maria’s (pronounced ma-RYE-ah) fragmented state of mind and grip on reality.

Maria is onto her second marriage, which is falling apart with both parties freely finding their sexual connections elsewhere, her daughter is under medical care for a neurological condition, her husband has paid for an abortion to get rid of an inconvenience that’s not his, Maria is losing her footing in life.

Didion’s prose in this book is utterly wonderful -it flows as though it weren’t written but put directly into the brain, it’s so easy to read while still full of nuance, direction, characterisation and subtlety. Maria’s life, choices and actions are never judged, simply observed and placed before the reader for them to consider however they will.

Until she died earlier this year, I’d never come across Didion. Reading this, I can see why she was so admired.