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A review by tfitoby
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
4.0
It's both well written and enjoyable. I'd never heard of this book until it appeared on my recommendations shelf and I've been trying to figure out why, especially as I then found two copies on the shelf at work. Not to mention how very impressive it was.
I guess there's only so much room for American literature from the thirties to have lasting worldwide appeal through to 2012. It was never on any syllabus I ever read that's for sure. Perhaps it should be. Depression era Hollywood certainly seems less horrifying and, well, depressing than other books about the same time in other parts of America.
That's not to say that this wasn't horrifying, because it was. Not least because everything written by Nathanael West in this novel could quite easily be written about the 21st century and especially that awful area of the world known as Hollywood.
The sense of foreboding or dread that you feel from the start of the novel may not be on a similar plane to [b:The Talented Mr. Ripley|156024|The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley, #1)|Patricia Highsmith|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327943279s/156024.jpg|1817520] for example but it's there all the same. The climax on the other hand is much more powerful that almost anything else I've read and really quite unexpected in it's content. Until this point I was merely enjoying it but the effect it has on the overall reaction to the novel is incredible.
One thing I should point out to people reading a back cover blurb and thinking it sounds like a 1930s version of a [a:Bret Easton Ellis|2751|Bret Easton Ellis|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1274408405p2/2751.jpg] novel, this is not about the industry or about shallow, rich people, it is so much more than that. It is a novel about the effect of Hollywood and fame on the everyday reality of normal working class people. The quality literary equivalent of watching idiots line up to embarrass themselves on tv auditioning for The X Factor or Big Brother and taken to its logical extreme.
EDIT: I've just had the pleasure of watching John Schlesinger's underseen movie adaptation and a few quibbles aside it is more than a match for West's novel.
I guess there's only so much room for American literature from the thirties to have lasting worldwide appeal through to 2012. It was never on any syllabus I ever read that's for sure. Perhaps it should be. Depression era Hollywood certainly seems less horrifying and, well, depressing than other books about the same time in other parts of America.
That's not to say that this wasn't horrifying, because it was. Not least because everything written by Nathanael West in this novel could quite easily be written about the 21st century and especially that awful area of the world known as Hollywood.
The sense of foreboding or dread that you feel from the start of the novel may not be on a similar plane to [b:The Talented Mr. Ripley|156024|The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley, #1)|Patricia Highsmith|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327943279s/156024.jpg|1817520] for example but it's there all the same. The climax on the other hand is much more powerful that almost anything else I've read and really quite unexpected in it's content. Until this point I was merely enjoying it but the effect it has on the overall reaction to the novel is incredible.
One thing I should point out to people reading a back cover blurb and thinking it sounds like a 1930s version of a [a:Bret Easton Ellis|2751|Bret Easton Ellis|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1274408405p2/2751.jpg] novel, this is not about the industry or about shallow, rich people, it is so much more than that. It is a novel about the effect of Hollywood and fame on the everyday reality of normal working class people. The quality literary equivalent of watching idiots line up to embarrass themselves on tv auditioning for The X Factor or Big Brother and taken to its logical extreme.
EDIT: I've just had the pleasure of watching John Schlesinger's underseen movie adaptation and a few quibbles aside it is more than a match for West's novel.