Why people recommend it
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion is a stark and haunting 1970 novel that captures the profound existential alienation and emotional desolation of a former actress adrift in the desolate landscapes of Los Angeles and Las Vegas. On The Book Review podcast, Brandon Taylor mentioned the novel while explaining the origin of one of his characters' names, noting that he named the figure after Mariah Wyth from Joan Didion's acclaimed work. In separate episodes of the same podcast, John Williams discussed reading the novel for leisure, contrasting his experience with the book against his deep appreciation for Joan Didion's legendary non-fiction collections. While John Williams noted that the fiction did not entirely grab him in the exact same way her journalistic essays and memoirs did, he nevertheless explored the novel as part of his broader reading of her literary output. The podcast discussions collectively highlight the enduring fascination that Joan Didion's fiction holds for contemporary writers and critics, even as they debate the stylistic differences between her celebrated journalistic prose and her stark, unsettling novels about modern American disillusionment, emptiness, and the psychological fractures experienced by women navigating emotionally barren landscapes.
Who recommended it
- John Williams Discussed
- Brandon Taylor Discussed
John Williams — 2 mentions
“I've read the Classic 60s collection slouching towards betham and and The White Album and I I've read play it as it lays her novel one of her novels and and more of the non-fiction”
“I read um Joan dian's 1970 novel play as it lays which I had never read her fiction before and I'm a big fan of her non-fiction like most people are this didn't quite grab me the way that her non-fiction does”
Brandon Taylor — 1 mention
“But no, he's named after Mariah Wyth from a Joan Ddian novel from Play It As Lays, I believe it is.”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“Beck a book by John Updike play it as it lays by Joan didan”