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A review by noirla1939
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
3.0
Being a lover of Hollywood history and movies, I bought Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust” after reading the back cover, intrigued by its premise of the struggling people of the entertainment capital of the world. I was hoping to read about the corruption and horrors an industry like Hollywood brought to ordinary people. And I got that....sort of.
What I didn’t expect to get was a journey that seemed all over the place. Basically, the main protagonist, Tod, is an art painter working in the film industry hoping to make a good career out of it. He comes across a wannabe actress named Faye and her dying old-time performer father Harry as well as her boyfriend Homer.
The book chronicles all of their struggles in a relentless and unforgiving, but doesn’t have a coherent narrative. Rather, it just goes from point A to point B. This thing happens and it leads to this and so on. It just follows the days and trials of Tod’s life and other people’s lives in Hollywood. It’s more of a series of vignettes and situations rather than an overarching story. This has some pros and cons. Being able to see the various perspectives of people living in Hollywood is a welcome method that sheds light on what he allure of an exaggerated life can do to people. The characters are struggling badly and yet they still persists in this endeavor that might not pay off for them in the end.
The problem that I have with West’s approach via this style of writing is that I just got bored since I didn’t know what to focus on anymore. Should I worry about Tod or Faye or Harry or all of them? Just reading about their struggles isn’t enough to captivate me when it just goes on and on and on with no payoff.
Not to say it’s ending is terrible. The ending is probably the best part of the novel as it attempts to reveal its insights on Hollywood. It’s just that the characters don’t go anywhere. They just drift and maybe that’s the point. People who come to Hollywood don’t go anywhere and drift around it without making any impact. It’s a testament in the danger of following your dreams: sometimes your dreams can disappoint you if they’re too high and to good to come true. Homer demonstrates this with his desire to go back to where he came from when things go south.
Overall, I had hoped to enjoy this novel a bit more. I’m a bit disappointed. That being said, it was still interesting to read “The Day of the Locust” as a study into the lives of the little people in Hollywood that never makes the headlines. They are, in many ways, more representative of the mass population than the films that the masses watch. The book is more about this than about film itself.
What I didn’t expect to get was a journey that seemed all over the place. Basically, the main protagonist, Tod, is an art painter working in the film industry hoping to make a good career out of it. He comes across a wannabe actress named Faye and her dying old-time performer father Harry as well as her boyfriend Homer.
The book chronicles all of their struggles in a relentless and unforgiving, but doesn’t have a coherent narrative. Rather, it just goes from point A to point B. This thing happens and it leads to this and so on. It just follows the days and trials of Tod’s life and other people’s lives in Hollywood. It’s more of a series of vignettes and situations rather than an overarching story. This has some pros and cons. Being able to see the various perspectives of people living in Hollywood is a welcome method that sheds light on what he allure of an exaggerated life can do to people. The characters are struggling badly and yet they still persists in this endeavor that might not pay off for them in the end.
The problem that I have with West’s approach via this style of writing is that I just got bored since I didn’t know what to focus on anymore. Should I worry about Tod or Faye or Harry or all of them? Just reading about their struggles isn’t enough to captivate me when it just goes on and on and on with no payoff.
Not to say it’s ending is terrible. The ending is probably the best part of the novel as it attempts to reveal its insights on Hollywood. It’s just that the characters don’t go anywhere. They just drift and maybe that’s the point. People who come to Hollywood don’t go anywhere and drift around it without making any impact. It’s a testament in the danger of following your dreams: sometimes your dreams can disappoint you if they’re too high and to good to come true. Homer demonstrates this with his desire to go back to where he came from when things go south.
Overall, I had hoped to enjoy this novel a bit more. I’m a bit disappointed. That being said, it was still interesting to read “The Day of the Locust” as a study into the lives of the little people in Hollywood that never makes the headlines. They are, in many ways, more representative of the mass population than the films that the masses watch. The book is more about this than about film itself.