About this title: Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, resting actress Maria Wyeth drifts along the freeway in perpetual motion, anaesthetized to pain and pleasure, seemingly untainted by her personal history. She finds herself radically divorced from husband, lovers, friends, her own past and her own future.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1972
Description: Very Good. Very Good, Mass Market Paperback, stains along bottom edge, rubbed, previous owner info on front free endpage, 213 pages, tight. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780374521714ISBN:0374521719
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Didion's second novel presents a year in the life of Maria Wyeth, an actress whose life seems made of meaningless sex, drug use and self-indulgence, as well as the pain of an abortion and divorce. It sounds like melodrama but is actually black comedy. 213 pages. -------------------------------------------------------This copy is in very good condition. The binding is solid, and there are no reading creases in the spine. The cover has a corner that was folded ... read more
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 213 p. Audience: General/trade. Brand New! No Marks! Fast Shipping! Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
Binding: S Trade Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780374521714ISBN:0374521719
Description: As New. Appears to be unread, tight and unbroken spine, lovely cover; you'll be thrilled with this book! 100% satisfaction guaranteed! ! ! read more
Description: New. Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas. GREAT BUY. Brand New From US Distributor. WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3, 500, 000 BOOKS SOLD. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780374529949ISBN:0374529949
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780374521714ISBN:0374521719
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. First edition/ninth printing book is like new tightness with no markings, page edges have some soiling and foxing, mild rubbing to wraps. read more
"This is the first book I have read by Didion. I think that I may have missed a few points, because I did not relate to the tagline on the back of the book that read "terrifying." An example of a book that I would consider "terrifying" would be American Psycho; I won't even pick up the book based on comments I have heard. Another book that has the potential to be "terrifying" is Girl Interrupted (depending on your mental health) or even The Virgin Suicides.
The point of my rambling returns to the cliché, "don't judge a book by it's cover." Reading the book was like watching Halle Berry win the Oscar. With its' cover decked out in promising taglines and a strung out woman in fishnets, it was fell short of a genuine piece of art.
I have heard wonderful things about Didion's essays. I intend to read them."
"I remember when I read Where I Was From a couple years ago, Didion referred a lot to her novel Play It As It Lays and I thought it sounded really bad. About a year ago I found an old edition someplace with this enormous and brain-numbingly awesome picture of Didion with her cigarette and legendarily icy, ironical stare. I really came close to buying it just because of that image on the back, but then I had a real stern confrontation with myself in the used fiction aisle about the folly and immaturity of buying a book I'd never want to read just for the author photo.
Well, silly me. Yesterday I found myself the grudging owner of a deeply unappealing FSG reprint that looks like an, I don't know, J. T. Leroy book or something else totally inappropriate and awful and contemporary. No fun at all! So it's funny to be reading something I never thought I'd have any interest in, but isn't that sort of the essence of maturity? I feel like I've sort of grown into Joan Didion. She used to epitomize all these things I hated, but now I find a lot of that same stuff pretty appealing.... story of my life, right? Story of most of ours, probably.
But anyway, yeah, this book. Well, I didn't have such a strong reaction to it, but like everything of Ms. Didion's I've read, I found it very well-written. I'd recommend this to anyone who liked Less Than Zero, who thinks they might enjoy essentially the same nihilistic LA-story more if it were set in the sixties, about a grown woman instead of a teenage boy, written by a better writer. I'd also recommend this to people who loved Valley of the Dolls yet who cling to certain literary pretensions. Since both these definitely describe me, it's not surprising that I did enjoy this book. I mean, it's a beautiful-woman-crashing-to-pieces yarn, and everyone loves those, don't they? No? Well, then don't waste your time. Read some of her essays instead."
"It's probably not cricket to give away the last, or nearly last line of a book, but this packs a punch: "I know what 'nothing' means, and keep on playing."
So what does one say about a book that is at once and the same time equally infuriating and incisive and compelling? The background is, after all, Hollywood and so by extension the ennui of the heroine is supposed to be seen as heroic, eg., she's genuine when everyone else is phony. But I think she's just as phony. Having the backdrop and the supporting characters be the movie biz - I mean, it's kind of a straw man, right? It's always easy to make anyone in this milieu look false, shallow, "unowned" by themselves - and even the most vacuous rebel by contrast seems more authentic. I think they call this shooting fish in a barrel. I'm sure that in the process Didion settled a lot of old scores. And I would object to being brought into that process if she didn't have the mad skills that she does. But she does, and there's much that astonishes in this portrait of uncompromising madness. I was reminded at times of Updike and Salinger, the frankness of tone and the rejection of expectation. It's a fast read, a tour de force. Hard to put down even as you sometimes feel nauseous."
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