Play it as it lays. Joan Didion

The novel by American writer Joan Didion is a poignant story of alienation and spiritual emptiness in the glamorous world of California in the 1960s. The main character, Maria Wyeth, is an actress who failed to make a career in the world of fierce competition, is experiencing the collapse of her marriage and an internal crisis, trying to find herself in chaotic relationships. Events unfold between Hollywood and the deserted freeways that become a symbol of her escape and isolation. This short novel is about loneliness, the fragility of relationships and the vulnerability of the human psyche.