Finished reading Play It As It Lays by Joan Dideon. Loved the book. A perfect summer read (that is if you’re looking for a dark, dramatic, perhaps a bit depressing page turner). It is about 1960s Hollywood, after all. My favorite chapter:

“‘I want a very large steak,’ she said to Les Goodwin in a restaurant on Melrose at eight o’clock that night. ‘And before the very large steak I want three drinks. And after the steak I want to go somewhere with very loud music.’

‘Like where.’

‘I don’t know where. You ought to know where. You know a lot of places with loud music.’

‘What’s the matter with you.’

‘I am just very very very tired of listening to you all.'”

This passage stuck with me. I read these few sentences a second time immediately after I read it the first and have since re-read it at least a dozen times. I can feel this scene. Stylistically, the book is written in snippets like these, very cinematic. I appreciate the blunt language. Read it, if you haven’t!

Next up on the reading list, Marya: A Life by Joyce Carol Oates. Coincidentally, two protagonists in a row named Marya albeit spelled a bit differently. Like Emily and Emaleigh. On the second page of Play It As It Lays, the protagonist declares: “My name is Maria Wyeth. That is pronounced Mar-eye-ah, to get it straight at the outset.” Funny how that goes.