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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
It's amazing how some things never change in this town...
Every character in this book is fucked up in some way and will either die young violently or end up in an asylum or homeless and penniless. Noone will end up happy. This really is a town where cardboard dreams are crushed and violence simmers just beneath the surface.
With its brilliant description of the grotesquerie and excesses of Hollywood, it's hard to believe that this book was published in 1939. West's tale of thrill-seeking Midwestern exiles and disillusioned creative types still holds up brilliantly almost 80 years later. Highly recommended.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
dark
reflective
medium-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
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This satire of Hollywood hangers-on and wannnabes (not celebrities) could be depressing because it's so ugly; but since my physical and spiritual life are both thankfully distant from Hollywood and its noxious culture, I read it with detachment (clinical detachment, perhaps), and found the novel not particularly depressing, only unpleasant. Dead and desolate. The keynote scene for me, that which struck me emotionally more than any other and made an impression to me on behalf of the entire novel, is that in which Homer Simpson--the creepy and pathetic retired accountant,--sits outside his building watching a few flies buzz around a scraggly cactus patch.
I was just thinking that had this been a movie instead of a novel, it might fit very nicely with Network, the legendary satire of network news and arguably my favorite movie. (A Day of the Locust movie was made at some point, but it wasn't very successful.)
I was just thinking that had this been a movie instead of a novel, it might fit very nicely with Network, the legendary satire of network news and arguably my favorite movie. (A Day of the Locust movie was made at some point, but it wasn't very successful.)
homer simpson’s tremendous descriptions, i whipped through - of course always comparing it to the movie (which now i must rewatch, ho) where, Wait! but ADORE sings Jeepers Creepers…! crazy insane ending which somehow didn’t feel as affective as the movie too. but still quite crazy insane
My wife recommended this book to me because we used to live in LA and this book is a testament to how fake it is.
Taking place during the Great Depression, the main character (an art graduate from Yale) tries to make it big in Hollywood after being hired as a set painter. He soon discovers that the dream of Hollywood is completely fabricated as an escape from the capitalist hell that he and the rest of the characters endure. The prose is not particularly compelling, but with some of the graphic things that happen in the book you can see how dead inside the characters are. They are tired, jaded and broke after being promised the world. That’s Hollywood for ya, and it’s gotten even more like this almost 85 years after this book was written.
A short enough read, I can appreciate the cultural relevance of the book but be warned that it slogs on and on.
Taking place during the Great Depression, the main character (an art graduate from Yale) tries to make it big in Hollywood after being hired as a set painter. He soon discovers that the dream of Hollywood is completely fabricated as an escape from the capitalist hell that he and the rest of the characters endure. The prose is not particularly compelling, but with some of the graphic things that happen in the book you can see how dead inside the characters are. They are tired, jaded and broke after being promised the world. That’s Hollywood for ya, and it’s gotten even more like this almost 85 years after this book was written.
A short enough read, I can appreciate the cultural relevance of the book but be warned that it slogs on and on.