September 19, 2023

#54 - Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion

1 hour 4 minutes

About the Episode

Though most people think essays1 when talking Joan Didion, Dan and I read her best known novel for the podcast. Play it as it Lays is the story of an actor whose journey oscillates between dizzying and domestic, as her acting career slows and her personal life collapses. While running barely 200 pages, the book has a quality of being adrift to it that connects directly to Didion’s belief that who we are is affected by where we are.

It’s clear that her reputation is well earned, and I appreciate what’s regarded as Didion’s “Hollywood” book, but I can’t say I’ll be returning to it any time soon. Like her essays, the novel is fragmented in a way that creates an aspect not of closure but its opposite, a kind of frantic recognition that all stories have holes and flaws and will collapse, eventually. The story mirrors LA’s mix of grimness and glamour, and echoes one of her core beliefs: all of us are in some essential fashion, “working” in the dark.

Which is why Dan sleeps with a nightlight on, to this day.

We hope you enjoy this discussion on Joan Didion’s Play It as It Lays.

About the Show
Hosted by novelists and entrepreneurs Daniel Breyer & Jeremy Streich, Good Scribes Only is a podcast for curious minds to explore, challenge, and think differently through books. In Season 4 we’re traveling through the 20th century, decade by decade, because Dan really wanted to see what the world was like before plumbing was a common thing.

Episode Notes

0-5 min — Intro

5-10 min — Casting the movie

10-15 min — Plot summary

15-20 min — On creative nonfiction

20-25 min — Writing fiction vs nonfiction

25-30 min — Self destructive characters

30-35 min — Finding meaning as a parent

35-40 min — Nihilism vs purpose

40-45 min — Following our parents

45-50 min — The landscape of Los Angeles

50-55 min — Purpose during success