Reading Play It As It Lays was like listening to an amazing record skip, over and over. 
 I don't get Maria Wyeth. Not that I had to, or have to, or needed to in order to get the power of Joan Didion's writing. I get the power of Joan Didion's writing. And of her white space. 
 My favorite writing teacher said once that the rhythms in the dialogue between two characters are sole proof of the relationship. This book helped me to fully under that concept. These people speak poison to each other, giving it out and taking it in with such ease that I was left kind of stunned and sad for the world. 
 That's a serious achievement, that Didion was able to make me feel that, so completely.