Books like Play It As It Lays
12 books with a reading profile close to Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion. Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
-
1
Giovanni’s Room
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
In 1950s Paris, David, a young American living on his father’s allowance, struggles with his sexual identity while his fiancée, Hella, travels in Spain.
-
2
El túnel
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Juan Pablo Castel, a painter, tells the reader at the start that he has killed Maria Iribarne, and then he explains why.
-
3
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Edna Pontellier lives within the rigid social structures of late nineteenth-century Louisiana, moving between the French Quarter in New Orleans and the vacation community of Grand Isle.
-
4
Death of a Salesman
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Willy Loman is an aging traveling salesman in Brooklyn whose mental health is fracturing under the weight of professional failure and debt.
-
5
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Set against the backdrop of World War II at the Devon School, the story follows Gene Forrester, an intellectual student, and his charismatic roommate Phineas.
-
6
Franny and Zooey
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Set in Manhattan during the 1950s, the narrative centers on two siblings of the brilliant Glass family as they navigate a shared spiritual crisis.
-
7
Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Hedda Gabler returns from a honeymoon to a life of stifling domesticity and debt alongside her academic husband, George Tesman.
-
8
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Esther Greenwood, a college student from Massachusetts, wins a competitive summer internship at a fashion magazine in mid-century New York City.
-
9
Revolutionary Road
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Frank and April Wheeler live in a Connecticut suburb, maintaining a surface of intellectual superiority over their neighbors while struggling with internal stagnation.
-
10
The Catcher in the Rye
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy recently expelled from Pencey Prep, wanders through New York City over a cold December weekend.
-
11
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
Set in a 1930s Georgia mill town, the narrative centers on John Singer, a deaf-mute man who becomes the silent confidant for four disparate neighbors.
-
12
No Longer Human
by Osamu Dazai
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature
The narrative follows Yozo Oba, a young man who feels physically and mentally alienated from the human race.
Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.
Get papr
