Showing posts with label Nathanael West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nathanael West. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day Of The Locust – Nathanael West, 1933 & 1939 ★★★½

Bleak and Bleaker

Misery, it is said, loves company, but the reverse is certainly not as true.

Take the case of Nathanael West, who made human misery the centerpiece of his work. Beloved among the American intelligentsia, he is pretty much ignored by everyone else. 

Reading this, a paperback that brings together his two most famous works, I understand why. There’s dark fiction; this is coal-black.