Play It as It Lays is a 1970 novel by the American writer Joan Didion.
Time magazine included the novel in its "100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005".
About the book, Joan Didion said, "I didn’t think it was going to make it [...] And suddenly it did make it, in a minor way. And from that time on I had more confidence."
The book was made into a 1972 movie starring Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as BZ.
Didion co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, John Gregory Dunne.
The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 31-year-old Maria Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film producer Carter Lang.
The further narration is conducted from a third-person perspective in eighty-four chapters of terse, controlled and highly visual prose typical of Didion.
