What I'm Reading: 'Play it as it Lays' by Joan Didion

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. 

What I'm Reading: 'The Group' by Mary McCarthy

I am not at all embarrassed to admit that I started reading The Group because I read a Vanity Fair article on the book and its subsequent film adaptation starring Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth of 'Arrested Development') and Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown of 'Murphy Brown' and one of my spirit animals). The sexual content was considered to be at least titillating and at most revolutionary, and even as a very jaded 21-century woman who had seen every episode of 'Sex and the City' before college, I still manage to find it entertaining, though certainly more funny than romantic.

The titular "group" is a clique of Vassar graduates coming of age in early 1930s Manhattan. They experience love, sex, marriage, babies, jobs, money troubles, and death. A highlight for me has definitely been the incredibly detailed descriptions of their contraceptive efforts, as well as their dabbling in psychoanalysis. 

Its cultural impact in 1963 can't be overstated, especially given how little of an impact it seems to have today, when most young women have never heard of The Group or Mary McCarthy, which is a shame. I think it probably suffered from being so sex-centric, and was thus seen as being kind of trashy, along the lines of other popular novels like Valley of the Dolls. There is a reference to The Group in an episode of 'Mad Men,' which is not surprising as it remained on the bestseller list for two years and would have been viewed as significant book for someone like Betty Draper, who would easily fit right in with The Group ladies. I've really been enjoying it so far, and I can't wait to finish it off so I can dive into the movie, which I have a feeling is going to be right up my alley.

#ReadWomen2014 Non-Fiction: 'The Feminine Mystique' by Betty Friedan

I put off reading The Feminine Mystique for a long time, and until pretty recently I just assumed I would never get around to it. Every time I've tried to read a non-fiction work of particular cultural importance from the past, I've been bored and disappointed. It's hard to read something like this, which in the immediate aftermath of its publication was put up on a such a pedestal, but which today seems flawed in so many ways. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, even with a heaping portion of skepticism.

Read more