Play It as It Lays is an interesting title to me. As a golfer, I’ve long been familiar with the phrase “play it as it lies”. Going into the book, I didn’t know if the title was some kind of play on the golf phrase, something that a character said in the book, or just a phrase that I’d never heard before. As it turns out, it is the latter. Late in the book, the main character Maria recalls a time when her father was teaching her to play craps. His main piece of advice to her was that “it…
Category: Literature
As a pretty frequent reader, I’ve noticed something funny about myself over the years. I realize that I often read strange words or names for years and never really know for sure if the pronunciation in my head is actually correct. Unless I happen to discuss the book I’m reading with a friend, or the word/name comes up organically in a conversation, it can go on for a long time. This was especially true before the internet became such a part our lives and it wasn’t possible to just Google “how do I pronounce —–“. Somerset Maugham is a name…