A spare, fragmented novel following Maria Wyeth, a failed actress and model adrift in the freeways and vacant lots of 1960s Hollywood, as her marriage, an illegal abortion, and a friend's suicide push her toward emotional collapse.
Books mentioned in Play It as It Lays (1)
I Ching: “I watch a hummingbird, throw the I Ching but never read the coins, keep my mind in the now.”
Books that mention Play It as It Lays (2)
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion: “I remembered having used such an incident in my second novel, Play It As It Lays.”
Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion: “I began Play It as It Lays just as I have begun each of my novels, with no notion of 'character' or 'plot' or even 'incident.'”