Synopses & Reviews
Nathanael West was only thirty-seven when he died in 1940, but his depictions of the sometimes comic, sometimes horrifying aspects of the American scene rival those of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.
A Cool Million, written in 1934, is a satiric Horatio Alger story set in the midst of the Depression.
The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931) was described by one critic as "a fantasy about some rather scatological adventures of the hero in the innards of the Trojan horse."
Synopsis
A Cool Million (1934) subtitled "The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin", is a satiric Horatio Alger story set in the midst of the Depression and is written in a bracing, mock-heroic style that has lost none of its wit or power.
The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931), West's first work, was described by one delighted critic as "a fantasy about some rather scatalogical adventures of the hero in the innards of the Trojan Horse."
Synopsis
A Cool Million (1934) subtitled "The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin", is a satiric Horatio Alger story set in the midst of the Depression and is written in a bracing, mock-heroic style that has lost none of its wit or power.
The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931), West's first work, was described by one delighted critic as "a fantasy about some rather scatalogical adventures of the hero in the innards of the Trojan Horse."
About the Author
Nathanael West was only thirty-seven when he was killed in an automobile accident in 1940. But he achieved his brilliant satiric vision early on, and his depictions of the "grotesque" aspects of the American scene rival those of Poe, Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. West's four works-the two published in this volume and the short novels
Miss Lonelyhearts and
The Day of the Locust-firmly established him as one of the most interesting and distinctive of American writers.
Table of Contents
The dream life of Balso Snell -- A cool million.