sixdaysago's review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
A near-unfailingly cynical set of stories, as Nathanael West takes aim at the culture - film, journalism, literature - of the Depression era. The Day of the Locust (1939), the first of four works in this collection, is West's final novel/novella and likely his best, a relatively restrained (though definitely absurd and funny) look at the derangement that encroaches on those working in or around Hollywood. Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), the tale of an existentially broken advice columnist for a grubby newspaper, is even more of a bitter pill, though as it reaches its zenith I think it becomes something remarkable (I'm interested to watch the Lee Tracy adaptation, which I know draws very little from this novella, but apparently has a tonal whiplash of an ending).
The other two stories here, The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931) and A Cool Million (1934), are cut from a different cloth. Both literary parodies whose reference points were out of my reach (the earlier story's focus is Baudelaire, the latter a mockery of the optimistic fiction of Horatio Alger), they're cartoonish affairs; Balso is a dreamlike wander through the mind of a sex-starved would-be writer and a not especially compelling screed against artistic aspiration, A Cool Million is a brutal reworking of the American rags-to-riches delusion with jarring violence punctuating farcical scenes. Neither did a lot for me.
The other two stories here, The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931) and A Cool Million (1934), are cut from a different cloth. Both literary parodies whose reference points were out of my reach (the earlier story's focus is Baudelaire, the latter a mockery of the optimistic fiction of Horatio Alger), they're cartoonish affairs; Balso is a dreamlike wander through the mind of a sex-starved would-be writer and a not especially compelling screed against artistic aspiration, A Cool Million is a brutal reworking of the American rags-to-riches delusion with jarring violence punctuating farcical scenes. Neither did a lot for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Minor: Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, and Rape
mercourier's review
2.0
I could not understand the satire. If I were to read this again, I would need more than a book club to get me through. I definitely noticed the difference between how this and modern satire is written. It made me wonder if years from now people will struggle to read something I found relevant.
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