Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion

B&N.com says ... "A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, 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 figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul-it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose."

This book left me uneasy and uncomfortable. That is the only way I know of to describe it. I read it in one day - it's a fairly quick read, seeing that some of the chapters are less than half a page long. But part of the reason I read it so quickly is that I was anxious to finish it and put it away. My father, for some unknown reason, has been urging me to read this book for several years. After finishing it last night, I cannot fathom WHY. I can't see my military-history-and-historical-fiction-loving father even remotely enjoying this book. Note to self - ask him to explain. I am by no means saying this book is not worth the read. It just put me into a place that I prefer not to be.