rhana's review
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.25
morgancward's review
Nathaneal West: Hollywood is a prison and celebrity will be the downfall of us all
Me, cursed with the gift of prophecy: Oh honey you've got another thing coming
Me, cursed with the gift of prophecy: Oh honey you've got another thing coming
kristenhg's review
Oof. The hammer is too heavy in these to be effective satire, I think. It just keeps hitting the nail of sad-sack humanity in the 1930s too squarely on the head for it to shine a satiric light on the era. Even though the books are short, I'm giving up and moving on.
kielma's review
3.0
Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust were both written in the 1930's. I chose to read this book because Miss Lonelyhearts played a role in a novel I read last year, The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, which was written in 1962.
Miss Lonelyhearts is a male journalist who writes an advice column under the pseudonym. He is never referred to by any other name. He is miserable and depressed from having to read all the letters that his fans write to him asking for help. I can't think of any redeeming qualities to mention about this story besides the fact that it is short. Yes, now I understand why it was used in The Man in the High Castle.
I found The Day of the Locust to be a much more interesting story. It's the story of a man who moves to Hollywood to be a set designer but isn't having as easy a time of it as he had hoped. He falls in with other people who have also come to Hollywood chasing dreams and wishes and are having as hard a time of it as he is, if not harder. This story deals with stereotypes and how human nature reacts upon discovery that reality does not live up to expectations.
Miss Lonelyhearts is a male journalist who writes an advice column under the pseudonym. He is never referred to by any other name. He is miserable and depressed from having to read all the letters that his fans write to him asking for help. I can't think of any redeeming qualities to mention about this story besides the fact that it is short. Yes, now I understand why it was used in The Man in the High Castle.
I found The Day of the Locust to be a much more interesting story. It's the story of a man who moves to Hollywood to be a set designer but isn't having as easy a time of it as he had hoped. He falls in with other people who have also come to Hollywood chasing dreams and wishes and are having as hard a time of it as he is, if not harder. This story deals with stereotypes and how human nature reacts upon discovery that reality does not live up to expectations.
jhourihan's review
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
theliteraryhooker's review
2.0
Another one where I seem to be in the minority; I didn't care much for either of the novellas in this volume.
Miss Lonelyhearts is about a man writing an agony aunt column and struggling with its impact on how he sees the world. I went in expecting something a little silly, a little campy maybe, but with a good message. Oh how wrong I was! Instead, the story is incredibly depressing as Miss Lonelyhearts involves himself in an affair, which begins a downward spiral towards his violent end. But it's hard to feel too bad for him given that he's an adulterer, a woman-beater, and all-round kind of shitty guy. I can forgive an unlikeable character, but he's also horribly uninteresting. Towards the end of the novella, I got the distinct impression that the whole thing would have worked SO MUCH BETTER as a play; as a novella though, it fell flat for me.
And speaking of unlikeable, uninteresting characters, let's look at The Day of the Locust. Tod moves to Hollywood and falls in love with the unattainable wannabe starlet. An unrequited love story, okay, I can get on board with that! Except apparently the only way he could possibly enjoy having sex with her would be to rape her, because...well for no real reason. And this isn't brought up just once, but multiple times and in detail throughout the novella. This is only one of my issues with it too; all of the male characters are drooling idiots over Faye, who is a cruel, immature 17-year-old with no thoughts outside of her looks. And in between the men being gahgah over Faye, you've got vivid descriptions of cockfights, a random interlude where Tod wanders onto a film set, and the climax of a secondary character curb-stomping a small child. Oh, and a drunken, arrogant dwarf, because what novella is complete without one? There is so much going on without anything actually happening.
In both stories, the language West uses is very evocative and unique, but it isn't anywhere near enough to distract from the nearly nonexistent plot or character development.
Miss Lonelyhearts is about a man writing an agony aunt column and struggling with its impact on how he sees the world. I went in expecting something a little silly, a little campy maybe, but with a good message. Oh how wrong I was! Instead, the story is incredibly depressing as Miss Lonelyhearts involves himself in an affair, which begins a downward spiral towards his violent end. But it's hard to feel too bad for him given that he's an adulterer, a woman-beater, and all-round kind of shitty guy. I can forgive an unlikeable character, but he's also horribly uninteresting. Towards the end of the novella, I got the distinct impression that the whole thing would have worked SO MUCH BETTER as a play; as a novella though, it fell flat for me.
And speaking of unlikeable, uninteresting characters, let's look at The Day of the Locust. Tod moves to Hollywood and falls in love with the unattainable wannabe starlet. An unrequited love story, okay, I can get on board with that! Except apparently the only way he could possibly enjoy having sex with her would be to rape her, because...well for no real reason. And this isn't brought up just once, but multiple times and in detail throughout the novella. This is only one of my issues with it too; all of the male characters are drooling idiots over Faye, who is a cruel, immature 17-year-old with no thoughts outside of her looks. And in between the men being gahgah over Faye, you've got vivid descriptions of cockfights, a random interlude where Tod wanders onto a film set, and the climax of a secondary character curb-stomping a small child. Oh, and a drunken, arrogant dwarf, because what novella is complete without one? There is so much going on without anything actually happening.
In both stories, the language West uses is very evocative and unique, but it isn't anywhere near enough to distract from the nearly nonexistent plot or character development.
balletbookworm's review
4.0
Good but DotL creeped me out because our classroom discussion fell on the same day as the shooting at VTech.
va87's review
3.0
Nathanael West doesn't waste a word. Every brilliant image and simile is sucked into the formally compact narrative and abandoned, left to fend for itself like pathetic New Yorkers and Angelenos in their metropolises: we're here and we can't say why, given what we've gotten from it. Perhaps it would be too much to ask for some breathing room; but I sure did want some, as it all gets a bit sickening and real without that little sip of grand tragedy you get in something like [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490528560l/4671._SY75_.jpg|245494]-- maybe that is why I found the longer The Day of the Locust stronger.