Play It As It Lays

Didion is basically crafting a fictional story about a female in show business and trying to remove any of the fantasy and magic from Hollywood and celebrity with this book. She sort of does accomplish that (especially from the female perspective),and in a very exaggerated way. I thought, while topically interesting, it’s not quite the writing I was looking for, and that may be a product of me having read Didion’s other works.

It’s hard to relate to much in this book, the characters are all superficial and exaggerations of the types of things Didion is trying to call out, maybe to prove a point.

I was a bit apprehensive to give this a try since I have a lot respect for Didion’s memoirs, essays, etc.. and although I quite understand this work of fiction, I also did not believe it to be something I would ever recommend, read again, or think about again.