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Miss Lonelyhearts and A Cool Million: Or, The Dismantling Of Lemuel Pitkin by Nathanael West
thaurisil's review against another edition
3.0
Written during the Depression, these two novellas carry similar themes, but are written in very different styles. Miss Lonelyhearts tells of a newspaper columnist who writes an advice column. Despite the moniker, he's male. He thinks of himself as a Christ-like figure to his readers, yet he struggles about believing in Christ, and his fluffy generalisations about life seem unequal to the real burdens of his writers. His boss Shrike is a cynic, treating the whole column as a money-making joke. Miss Lonelyhearts' own interactions with the people around him ends mostly in depravity, violence and sex. Finally he achieves a state of moral high ground, but it is an apathetic state, as close as he can get to being Christ-like yet far removed from it. Right at the end, as a man hurt by him comes to kill him, Miss Lonelyhearts rushes to him in a loving embrace, and he is shot and killed in an act reminiscent of Christ's death.
A Cool Million is about Lemuel Pitkin, an honest, good-hearted, poor boy who, spurred on by the encouragement of ex-president Mr Whipple and the American Dream, seeks his fortune in New York to protect his house from being sold. Instead of prosperity, he meets injustice. He loses his teeth, an eye, a leg and his scalp, is imprisoned twice and beaten up multiple times, sees the girl he fancies forced into prostitution, and is finally killed. The story ends with him being celebrated as a martyr for the American Dream.
The two stories are similar in mood yet vastly different in their writing styles. Miss Lonelyhouse requires more effort and reflection to identify the motifs and analogies, but A Cool Million is a harder pill to swallow because you shudder with every sentence to read of how Lem will next be tricked or beaten or otherwise unrighteously dealt by. Each has its own unique tone. Miss Lonelyhearts is written mostly in an objective, clipped, newspaper-like tone which contrasts sharply with the heartfelt, ungrammatical letters written to Miss Lonelyhearts. A Cool Million on the other hand has an easy, light-hearted, almost fairy tale like tone that clashes with and highlights the bitterness of Lem's fate.
I wouldn't say either story is easy to read. They are bitter and painful, and there is almost no hope of redemption. But they are stories written by a brilliant author in an era that unfortunately made them wholly appropriate tales.
A Cool Million is about Lemuel Pitkin, an honest, good-hearted, poor boy who, spurred on by the encouragement of ex-president Mr Whipple and the American Dream, seeks his fortune in New York to protect his house from being sold. Instead of prosperity, he meets injustice. He loses his teeth, an eye, a leg and his scalp, is imprisoned twice and beaten up multiple times, sees the girl he fancies forced into prostitution, and is finally killed. The story ends with him being celebrated as a martyr for the American Dream.
The two stories are similar in mood yet vastly different in their writing styles. Miss Lonelyhouse requires more effort and reflection to identify the motifs and analogies, but A Cool Million is a harder pill to swallow because you shudder with every sentence to read of how Lem will next be tricked or beaten or otherwise unrighteously dealt by. Each has its own unique tone. Miss Lonelyhearts is written mostly in an objective, clipped, newspaper-like tone which contrasts sharply with the heartfelt, ungrammatical letters written to Miss Lonelyhearts. A Cool Million on the other hand has an easy, light-hearted, almost fairy tale like tone that clashes with and highlights the bitterness of Lem's fate.
I wouldn't say either story is easy to read. They are bitter and painful, and there is almost no hope of redemption. But they are stories written by a brilliant author in an era that unfortunately made them wholly appropriate tales.
selenajournal's review against another edition
4.0
I made a promise to myself that I woudl actively work toward reading all of the books listed on the 1001 books to read before you die list. Sometimes I’ve pouted through the books and then there are times where the list leads me to a new author and gem that I would have missed completely.
Miss Lonelyhearts is Nathanael West’s most famous book, through really, it is a novella. Miss Lonelyhearts is the nickname for the advice columnist for a magazine. (the reader never finds out Miss Lonelyhearts’ real name). He takes the job and treats it as a joke – it was meant to be a joke. And then he has to read these letters. These letters that are filled with such misery and desperation that perfectly captures Depression era sentiments. It’s impossible to treat the letters flippantly once Miss Lonelyhearts reads their candid and tragic tales.
More troubled than all of the folks that write these sad letters is Miss Lonelyhearts himself. He wants so hard to help them but cannot even know where to begin. He tries alcohol to numb his mind and sex to tired it but to no avail. His fiance encourages him to quit his job, his editor makes a mockery out of his emotional response to these letters and even God and religion, he feels, fail him.
I’ve read commentary on the book which states that, in some ways, Miss Lonelyhearts is a representation of Christ. He sacrifices himself on the verge of what is a real religious epiphany and to what end? Life goes on just the very same.
I haven’t read the Great Gatsby but I’ve heard that it perfectly epitomizes life in post-WWII, Depression-era America. I think West’s Miss Lonelyhearts should be added to that list. In its few pages, it gives across the essence of a time.
Miss Lonelyhearts is Nathanael West’s most famous book, through really, it is a novella. Miss Lonelyhearts is the nickname for the advice columnist for a magazine. (the reader never finds out Miss Lonelyhearts’ real name). He takes the job and treats it as a joke – it was meant to be a joke. And then he has to read these letters. These letters that are filled with such misery and desperation that perfectly captures Depression era sentiments. It’s impossible to treat the letters flippantly once Miss Lonelyhearts reads their candid and tragic tales.
More troubled than all of the folks that write these sad letters is Miss Lonelyhearts himself. He wants so hard to help them but cannot even know where to begin. He tries alcohol to numb his mind and sex to tired it but to no avail. His fiance encourages him to quit his job, his editor makes a mockery out of his emotional response to these letters and even God and religion, he feels, fail him.
I’ve read commentary on the book which states that, in some ways, Miss Lonelyhearts is a representation of Christ. He sacrifices himself on the verge of what is a real religious epiphany and to what end? Life goes on just the very same.
I haven’t read the Great Gatsby but I’ve heard that it perfectly epitomizes life in post-WWII, Depression-era America. I think West’s Miss Lonelyhearts should be added to that list. In its few pages, it gives across the essence of a time.
hungerford's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
freybabies's review against another edition
1.0
I’ve had to DNF this because it is quite frankly so triggering and honestly horrific to read. The context is interesting but it wasn’t enough to allow me to enjoy this.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
Aside from terrible selection of cover, this is a beautiful book - a small existional capsule set in times of Great Depression. It probably would have made a more powerful theatrical play. Miss Lonelyhearts is name of a newspaper column written by (surprise! Surprise!!) a man, offering religious advice when he is himself bored and distressed by his job. As if it wasn't enough of commoditification, the real name of writer is not named and he is constantly refered to as Miss Lonelyhearts.
"Everything had to form a pattern: the shoes under the bed, the ties in the holder, the pencils on the table. When he looked out of a window, he composed the skyline by balancing one building against another. If a bird flew across this arrangement, he closed his eyes angrily until it was gone."
"Everything had to form a pattern: the shoes under the bed, the ties in the holder, the pencils on the table. When he looked out of a window, he composed the skyline by balancing one building against another. If a bird flew across this arrangement, he closed his eyes angrily until it was gone."
athousandgreatbooks's review against another edition
4.0
An ambitious young reporter is tasked with writing advisory messages for a newspaper’s lovelorn column. ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’, as the columnist is dubbed, starts out confident and clever, contemptuous of the correspondents he is supposed to advise and help. The whole thing is a farce, meant only to increase ‘circulation’.
But the letters are not easy to ignore and are filled with such genuine suffering that the constant stream of human anguish and cry for help begin to get under his skin. Soon his life begins to fall around him as he comes to realize the fraudulent state of affairs he’s presiding over. He takes refuge in idealism, partly to fortify against the harshness of the world and partly to counter the cynicism of his editor, a diabolical nihilist of the Mephistophelean order whose commentary on the world verges on the vicious.
It’s a hard-boiled story, dark and unapologetic, rough around the edges and elliptical in its narrative form, a black comedy that comes after tragedy has washed over a dozen times over.
But the letters are not easy to ignore and are filled with such genuine suffering that the constant stream of human anguish and cry for help begin to get under his skin. Soon his life begins to fall around him as he comes to realize the fraudulent state of affairs he’s presiding over. He takes refuge in idealism, partly to fortify against the harshness of the world and partly to counter the cynicism of his editor, a diabolical nihilist of the Mephistophelean order whose commentary on the world verges on the vicious.
It’s a hard-boiled story, dark and unapologetic, rough around the edges and elliptical in its narrative form, a black comedy that comes after tragedy has washed over a dozen times over.
dmsehnert's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
ugh. a little too meta for me!
hannah850's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25