bundy23 's review for:

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

3.0

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I've been putting off reading this for ages as I was expecting an all-time great novel but for whatever reason it just didn't really click for me. It's a good book and I can totally tell why it's got a heap of 5-star ratings here but for me it just doesn't fully commit to total darkness. None of the characters are particularly likeable and Tod's painting dream thing is just annoying... and then there's this, “If only he had the courage to wait for her some night and hit her with a bottle and rape her.” WTF? How are we supposed to root for a dude who thinks shit like this?

Overall I'm just disappointed and sad because I really wanted this to be the classic I'd heard all about.