100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Auckland Bookstore open weekends (8:30am - 5pm) for browsing and Pick Ups! 🎉

Play It As It Lays

3.91 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 87,303 ratings, 11,026 reviews)
Brief Description
A ruthless and unflinching examination of American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking. One thing in my defence, not that it matters: I know what ‘nothing’ means, and keep on playing Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, hollowed-out actress Maria... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2600
Elsewhere:
$2799
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

A ruthless and unflinching examination of American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking.

From the author of The Year of Magical Thinking

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A ruthless and unflinching examination of American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking.

One thing in my defence, not that it matters: I know what ‘nothing’ means, and keep on playing

Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, hollowed-out actress Maria Wyeth’s life plays out in a numbing routine of perpetual freeway driving. In her early thirties, divorced from her husband, dislocated from friends, anaesthetized to pain and pleasure, Wyeth is a woman who has run out of both desires and motives – the epitome of a generation made ill by too much freedom.

More than five decades after its original publication, Play It As It Lays remains a profoundly disturbing novel that ruthlessly dissects American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking.

Series: Collins Modern Classics

View all
  • On Sale
    18% off
    The Virgin Suicides
    In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters – beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighbourhood boys – commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family’s fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love,...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • The Year of Magical Thinking
    Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty. John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their daughter fall ill. At first,...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • All the Light We Cannot See
    Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. Open your eyes, and see what you can with them before they close forever. For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Americanah
    Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a profound exploration of love, migration, and identity in today's globalised world. Spanning three continents, it is a story that intertwines the lives of two young Nigerians, Ifemelu and Obinze, who come of age in a tumultuous political era, impacting their future and the decisions they make. As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school,...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • The Golden Notebook
    Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. In 1950s London, novelist Anna Wulf struggles with writer’s block. Divorced with a young child, and fearful of going mad, Anna records her experiences in four...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • The Indian in the Cupboard
    Essential Modern Classics are relaunched in gorgeous new covers, bringing these timeless stories to a new generation. For Omri, it is a dream come true when the plastic American Indian he locks into the old cupboard comes to life. Little Bull is everything an Indian brave should be – proud, fearless, and defiant. But being in charge of a real,...
    Paperback
    $1999
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Jennie
    If in doubt, wash! What is it like to be a cat? Find out in this classic animal story from the renowned writer Paul Gallico. Peter Brown longs for a pet cat. One day, he is following a stray cat through the streets when he is knocked down and seriously hurt. On waking, he is astonished to find that he...
    Paperback
    $1899
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Hidden Figures
    NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREOscar Nominated For Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the flight paths that would enable these...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Close Range
    From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News, a collection of short stories inspired by the harsh and unforgiving landscape of Wyoming. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong. Inspired by the brutal and magnificent...
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Middlesex
    Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Fermat’s Last Theorem
    The extraordinary story of the solving of a puzzle that has confounded mathematicians since the 17th century. The solution of Fermat’s Last Theorem is the most important mathematical development of the 20th century. In 1963, a schoolboy browsing in his local library stumbled across the world’s greatest mathematical problem: Fermat’s Last Theorem, a puzzle that every child can understand but...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • No Logo
    Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. When No Logo was first published, it became an instant bestseller and international phenomenon. Its riveting exposé of the branded and corporate world in which we...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships Monday

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780008706166

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 23 May 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 160g

Pages: 300

About the Author

Joan Didion is one of America's most respected writers, her work constituting some of the greatest portraits of modern-day American culture. Over the four decades of her career, she has produced widely-acclaimed journalistic essays, personal essays, novels, non-fiction, memoir and screenplays. Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award in 2005.

Also by Joan Didion

View all
  • The Year of Magical Thinking
    The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is a profoundly moving and unflinchingly honest memoir that delves deep into the heart of grief and mourning. This poignant narrative recounts Didion's life-altering year following the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and the severe illness of their only daughter, Quintana Roo. In the days leading up to Christmas...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • The Year of Magical Thinking
    Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty. John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their daughter fall ill. At first,...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • On Sale
    18% off
    Play It As It Lays
    Play It As It Lays is a striking exploration of American life in the late 1960s, penned by the acclaimed author Joan Didion, also known for her works The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking. Set against the arid backdrop of the Nevada desert and the insidious glitter of Hollywood, this novel revolves around Maria Wyeth, a once-promising...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Slouching Towards Bethlehem
    Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion is a seminal collection of essays that offers an incisive look into the 1960s America. Published in 1968, this work captures the tumultuous spirit of the era, delving into the cultural and political upheavals that defined the decade. With an unparalleled reportorial voice, Didion chronicles her experiences and observations, shedding light on the rapid...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Notes to John
    An extraordinary, previously unpublished work from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights, Joan Didion. In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had 'a rough few years.' She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. For several...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • The White Album
    Joan Didion’s hugely influential collection of essays which defines, for many, the America which rose from the ashes of the Sixties. We tell ourselves stories in order to live. The princess is caged in the consulate. The man with the candy will lead the children into the sea. In this now legendary journey into the hinterland of the American psyche,...
    Paperback
    $2199
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Salvador
    El Salvador, 1982, is at the height of a ghastly civil war. Joan Didion travels from battlefields to body dumps, interviews a puppet president, considers the distinctly Salvadorean meaning of the verb 'to disappear' and trains a merciless eye not only on the terror there but also on the depredations and evasions of US foreign policy. Salvador is a restless...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Blue Nights
    From one of our most powerful writers, a classic work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old. Blue Nights opens...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • I Write to Find Out What I am Thinking
    The perfect book for all the new readers brought to Didion through her bestselling The Year of Magical Thinking. This hardcover omnibus edition of Didion's collected nonfiction contains her final four books: Blue Nights, South and West, Let Me Tell You What I Mean, and her bestselling and most famous work, The Year of Magical Thinking. In her essay Why...
    Hardback
    $4500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    Twelve early pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of Joan Didion. Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her astonishing five-decade career, the wide-ranging pieces in this collection include Didion writing about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to San Simeon, and a reunion of WWII veterans in Las Vegas, and about...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Play It as It Lays
    A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Joan Didion's Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil—literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Let Me Tell You What I Mean
    From one of our most iconic and influential writers: twelve pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of this legendary figure. Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her astonishing five-decade career, Didion writes about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to William Randolph Hearst's castle at San Simeon, a reunion of WWII...
    Hardback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Pre-order
    Big Little Truths
    Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart but Madeline, Jane and Celeste have been through worse. It's been a decade since the school trivia night that changed their lives forever and now they're living blissfully ordinary suburban lives. But when an anonymous grisly package arrives at the local high school, and a man in a green Volvo is...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Pre-order
    Out 25 Aug 2026
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Red Rising
    The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Crescent City Paperback Box Set
    A beautiful box set containing all three paperback instalments of the Crescent City series from #1 bestselling global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas. BOUND BY BLOOD. TEMPTED BY DESIRE. UNLEASHED BY DESTINY. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James – Telegraph Spiced...
    Set
    $5499
    Elsewhere:
    $7000
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday
  • Golden Son
    ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships Monday

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.