"There hasn't been another American writer of Joan Didion's quality since Nathanel West . . . A terrifying book." –John Leonard, The New York Times
"Simple, restrained, intelligent, well-structured, witty, irresistibly relentless, forthright in diction, and untainted by the sensational,
Play It As It Lays is a book of outstanding literary quality." –
Library Journal "[A] scathing novel, distilling venom in tiny drops, revealing devastation in a sneer and fear in a handful of atomic dust." –
J. R. Frakes, Book World