Play It as It Lays

Play It as It Lays
First edition cover
AuthorJoan Didion
LanguageEnglish
PublisherFarrar Straus & Giroux
Publication date
1970
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN0-374-52171-9
OCLC312968389

Play It as It Lays is a 1970 novel by American writer Joan Didion. Time magazine included the novel in its list of the "100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005".[1] The novel has been credited for helping define modern American Fiction[2] and has been described as an "instant classic".[3] It is known for depicting the nihilism and the illusory glamor of life in Hollywood,[4] as well as capturing the landscape and culture of 1960s Los Angeles.

The book was adapted into a 1972 film starring Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as BZ. Didion co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, John Gregory Dunne.

  1. ^ "All Time 100 Novels". Time. 16 October 2005. Archived from the original on October 19, 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  2. ^ "Remember Joan Didion with This Revelatory Documentary". Netflix Tudum. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  3. ^ Anolik, Lili (August 15, 2022). "Joan Didion and Eve Babitz Shared an Unlikely, Uneasy Friendship—One That Shaped Their Worlds and Work Forever". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
  4. ^ Als, Hilton (November 25, 2019). "Joan Didion's Early Novels of American Womanhood". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved September 29, 2023.