reviews

I’m starting to wonder if I intentionally seek out books with depressing narratives- if something in the books I choose reveals some truth about my own inner emotional state. Am I the fragile and emotionally-destroyed women portrayed in these books? Anyways… Enough introspection, that’s not what you’re all here for. This week, I’m reviewing “Play It As It Lays,” the 1970 novel by Joan Didion.

I picked up this book impulsively while scanning the bookshelves the last time I made a trip to my local book store (Book People- the largest independently-owned book store!) because the cover was vibrant and simple and also quietly sinister, featuring only a coiled, black snake and a pink, desert sky. This was my first Didion novel, and hearing so much about her, I was excited to delve into her apparently-powerful prose. And it was powerful, packing so many emotions and raw, purely-human interactions into one short, punchy novel that will stay with me for a very long time.

play it as it lays book cover review joan didion 1970 the young ecelctic — “Play It As It Lays” by Joan Didion

The plot of this book is relatively simple, so it relies on the development of the tightly-woven cast of characters to move the story along. We begin with a first-person monologue by Maria (Mar-eye-a) who has been admitted to a psychiatric facility to recover from a mental breakdown that the rest of the novel will lead up to. After the opening monologues by Maria, her friend Helene, and her ex-husband Carter, the remainder of the narrative is told in a close third person that follows Maria as her marriage crumbles, her daughter is sequestered away in a hospital, and her friends all proceed to royally screw up each other’s lives.

While the characters and the ever-shifting relationships between them make up a bulk of the story, the setting- 1960s LA and the surrounding desert- almost acts as a separate character itself, as it sprawls around Maria and seems to swallow her up. After escaping a small town in Nevada for New York City, Maria becomes an actress and a model, but she quickly retires her life as a model when she marries Carter, a film director, and is sucked into the vacuous, artificial world of Hollywood. While Carter initially helped Maria to get a few meager roles, her Hollywood career starts to wane and the veneer of their marriage seems to wear off, as the couple grapples with the reality that is their empty lives.

The book weaves such a potent image of complete desolation, you start to understand why Maria ends up the way she does. Everything in her life lacks meaning. Her personal interactions seem rife with the duplicity of fake friendship. Her husband is constantly absent while working on movies. Men are worried about using artificial lemon in their drinks, and women are worried that their hairdresser is out of town. Around every corner, a snake lies in waiting to snap at Maria and cause her to tumble further in her downward spiral toward complete nihilism. Maria even spends most of her days aimlessly driving along the freeway with no destination, mirroring her complete directionlessness in life. And while she was teetering on the edge of collapse, one heart-wrenching loss sends her crashing over and into oblivion (what it is, you’ll have to read to find out).

tuesday weld play it as it lays joan didion novel film book review the young eclectic — Maria played by Tuesday Weld in the 1972 film adaptation of the novel.

A complaint that many people have about this novel is that they don’t like Maria enough to care about her emotional turmoil throughout the book. And it’s true, at some points, I couldn’t understand why she said certain things or acted in certain ways, but in other moments, like those where the book talks about her daughter in the hospital, show so much warmth and tenderness and emotional honesty that I can’t help but feel for her. In a way, I can relate to Maria’s pessimistic vision of life as a highway stretching into a desert riddled with rattlesnakes waiting to uncoil their twisting, sun-baked bodies and punish you for venturing out. I can also relate to her attitude that she should still go on anyways. While her equally-nihilistic friend BZ asks “Why?” she asks “Why not?” which reveals her warm, molten core that is not dead yet.

All of this to say that the book is a stunner that will leave you breathless at some points with its, short, laser-focused chapters that come in hot and burn out just as quickly like a firework. I finished the book in just a couple of sittings because it flowed that easily. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that wants to read something that not only has wicked prose, but will also leave an impression on you.

I’m looking forward to reading more Didion.

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t have high expectations for ‘Killing Eve’ when I lazily clicked into it on Hulu one night after entering the “show hole” yet again when I finished a different television series. There was just so much hype surrounding it and I don’t usually indulge in shows that EVERYONE likes, because shows like ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘Big Bang Theory’ are among the most popular on television and well… you know… they’re not the most quality programs you could be wasting your time on. So forgive me for being a little skeptical of a show I’ve heard nothing but good things about. All of this to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if I’m not one to enjoy “espionage” or action shows- there was so much about this show that broke it out of the norm that it kept me watching (I finished the 10- episode first season in about three days).

jodie comer sandra oh killing eve assassin action espionage tv show — Jodie Comer’s assassin character Villanelle gleefully demands dinner from Sandra Oh’s Eve, knife in hand.

The first thing I could go on and on about is the fact that the main cast of the show is almost entirely women. Just let that sink in. In a society where most forms of media are about men, this in and of itself was a reason the show intrigued me in the first place. And the show wasn’t in-your-face about it, and didn’t try too hard to make it a statement. The characters were just women, and that was that. No fanfare required, even if they were powerful, intelligent badasses that deserve the attention.

My boyfriend Jaden, who I easily convinced to join me in watching the show (he enjoys a good cat and mouse storyline) had a similar opinion.

” I’m not one who usually cares about the demographic breakdown of characters in media, and often find myself rolling my eyes at the so-often shoehorned female characters in action movies, but ‘Killing Eve’ actually does it right. This show does a great job of not being in your face about the fact that strong women make up most of the main cast, and actually treats them as regular characters in a thriller, only mentioning their sex when it would realistically be necessary,” he said.

Eve, played by a magnificent Sandra Oh, and Villanelle, an equally magnificent Jodie Comer, have such a great dynamic, that I was never bored with the plotline. Villanelle is a ruthless, psychopathic assassin obsessed with Eve, and Eve is a British intelligence officer equally obsessed with Villanelle, a relationship that culminates in an entirely surprising, yet strangely satisfying interaction in the season finale- one that leaves me eagerly awaiting the next installment.

killing eve jodie comer sandra oh queer representation tv show review — The show weaves an interesting and complicated dynamic between Eve, an intelligence officer and Villanelle, a psychopathic assassin with a penchant for curly-haired women.

A few other points that make the show so damn irresistible are that many of the characters are queer (Villanelle is openly bisexual), something we don’t see a lot of, and the action sequences are actually realistic (wait so there aren’t chase scenes where people easily scale buildings and blow up cars by merely shooting at them? Is it even an action show??).

“… the action is never over the top or unrealistic. The attention to realism in the action, as well as the development of the main characters, gives me hope for the future of female actors portraying more traditionally masculine roles,” Jaden remarked on the action in the show.

jodie comer villanelle killing eve suit fashion style tv show review — Villanelle in a sharp suit, one of my favorite looks she wore during the season.

And the fashion, you guys. Villanelle is such a flamboyant dresser, and I enjoyed all of the looks she created. I could write an entire article about the outfits in this show and how they communicate the emotional state of the characters at the time, or even just a reflection on how good the wardrobe in this show really was, but this is something that has already been written about at length (like in this article, and this one). But the scene where she wears the oversized, bright pink Molly Goddard dress is definitely iconic and is going into my ever-growing pool of potential Halloween costume ideas.

Needless to say, I am highly anticipating the next season, and can’t wait to see where Eve and Villanelle’s life and death game of cat and mouse will take them next. In Jaden’s words:

” At the end of the day, ‘Killing Eve’ is an excellent show, and anyone with an affinity for spy/assassin thrillers with characters that are actually down to Earth and fun to watch should check it out. I’m eagerly awaiting season two.”