Play It As It Lays

I have been an admirer of Joan Didion’s nonfiction, but I’ve been interested in reading some of her fiction lately, which is why I picked up Play It As It Lays.  I like this one much better than The Last Thing He Wanted. It is sort of a fictional version of Slouching Toward Gomorrah since it about the hedonistic people in the film business in California in the 60s. There are drugs, betrayals, sex, abortions, and plain bad behavior. It is a terse, laconic book that sears into your mind. Basically it is the story of a young woman caught up in this morally repugnant world and slowly losing it. The story stayed with me long after finishing it-you could say that it was haunting.