Synopses & Reviews
In Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West's classic novel, an advice columnist for a New York City newspaper is disheartened and disillusioned by the desperate letters he receives. Eventually, he begins actually getting involved in the lives of his letter-writers, a move he comes to regret deeply. First published in 1933, Miss Lonelyhearts was critically acclaimed, but when its publisher went bankrupt it was taken out of circulation, and West made almost no money from the book. West's final book, The Day of the Locust focuses on the fringes of Hollywood. Tod Hackett, late of Yale, designs sets for movies. Poor, awaiting inspiration for a great painting, he frequents the underbelly of California life, meeting various frustrated characters: a shy bookkeeper from Iowa, a smart-aleck child actress, a raging dwarf, and an ingenue.
Review
"Taken together, these two novels say more about the way we live now and the things that brought us to our present pass than any other work of fiction I can think of." The New Yorker
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"[T]he best picture we have of our rotting urban culture, our piles of tawdry technological junk in which human lives are first mired and then mangled." The Atlantic Monthly
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"West is an original comic poet; and he has made of the misfortunes of a young newspaperman...a miniature comic epic." Edmund Wilson
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"Brilliant, savage, and arresting." Dorothy Parker
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"Miss Lonelyhearts has brilliance, but it also has honest tenderness, a sense of the author's personality, and a reckless freedom of imagination qualities that are even rarer today than when it was first published." Malcolm Cowley
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"Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust sold poorly in West's lifetime, although they were critically praised; the New Yorker reported, 'Taken together, these two novels say more about the way we live now and the things that brought us to our present pass than any other work of fiction I can think of.' Despite, perhaps, his focus on desperation, West is a joy to read; subtle and quick, he is never heavy-handed, and his more thoughtful characters contain original (though often futile) insight into the nature of malaise. Influential, relevant, and disturbing, these novels remain an arresting and thought-provoking read." Jill Owens, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)