My summer of Joan Didion has turned into my autumn of Joan Didion as I tucked into Play it as it Lays, the first work of fiction of hers I've read to date. I was able to get through it in one or two sittings, which is something I really love about all her writing. The prose is sparse and the page count low, but that does not in any way diminish its impact; if anything its economy only enhances the emotional impact, especially in this case.

Play it as it Lays gave me visions of the most recent season of 'Mad Men,' with so many characters out in Los Angeles, and the action of the novel and the series are only separated by about six years. Maria is an aging-at-30 actress, a mild sociopath and a barbiturates addict, who seems to powerlessly drift from one unfortunate sexual encounter to another. Her love for her hospitalized 4-year old Kate seems to be her only purpose in life, and yet is never enough to force her to act in her own best interest, and we learn from the first page that Maria is in a neuropsychiactric hospital

I read this book immediately following a tense and disappointing visit with my own doctor, which sounds like a terrible idea, but I found it oddly cathartic.