{"product_id":"9781939126177","title":"Play It As It Lays","description":"\u003cp\u003e“There hasn't been another American writer of Joan Didion's quality since Nathanael West.” —John Leonard, \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA marvel of compression written in spare, expertly honed prose, \u003cem\u003ePlay It As It Lays\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of minor Hollywood actress Maria Wyeth, in her early 30s, troubled, and the spiritually arid, drug-numbed world through which she moves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDivorced from her movie-director husband, mother of a little girl, Maria, an ex-model from a tiny Nevada town, is recovering from a breakdown as the novel opens. Via a series of taut, impressionistic scenes, the narrative surveys her path to the present, from a Silver Wells, Nevada, girlhood to Hollywood, a life marked, for Maria, by broken relationships, reliance on pills, and empty sex, and spent among play-acting narcissists.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten by an author with intimate knowledge of Hollywood, and one of our keenest observers of cultural emptiness, \u003cem\u003ePlay It As It Lays\u003c\/em\u003e is harrowing, a brilliant,  unsparing exploration of self-destructive lives. The novel’s hyper-vivid settings—Los Angeles during the searing Santa Ana winds, neon Las Vegas, sunblasted desert towns—are essential to its haunting atmosphere, one with hints of impending doom and shriveling sustenance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere is the first-ever digital edition of  a novel \u003cem\u003eTime \u003c\/em\u003emagazine named one of the Best English-Language Novels from 1923-2005, a strikingly controlled book where Joan Didion discovered the perfect form for her unnerving, transfixing story.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Zola Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47157714518256,"sku":"9781939126177","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781939126177_p0.jpg?v=1763668569","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781939126177","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}