The Day of the Locust and Miss Lonelyhearts

As austerity ripples on in this century, the book’s combination of escapism and relevance continues to draw me in. The language is so inventive, the characters so brilliantly (often absurdly) captured, and their behaviour so close to pantomime, that it renders the whole a garishly compelling and thought-provoking read – Elle-Violet Bramley * Guardian *Black-as-pitch Hollywood farce * The Guardian *The Day of the Locust has scenes of extraordinary power. Especially I was impressed by the pathological crowd at the premiere, the character and handling of the aspirant actress and the uncanny medieval feeling of some of his Hollywood background set off by those vividly drawn grotesques – F. Scott FitzgeraldA talented and somewhat neglected author… wonderfully imaginative and slightly disturbed * Daily Telegraph *It certainly packs a wallop – John Dos PassosThese novels say more about the way we live now- and the things that brought us to our present pass - than any other work of fiction I can think of – L.E. Sissman * New Yorker *

Nathanael West (1903-1940) published four novels: The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931), Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), A Cool Million (1934), and The Day of the Locust (1939). West said that ‘an artist can afford to be anything but dull’. He died almost unknown in a car crash at the age of thirty-seven. His fans include W.H. Auden, Matt Groening, F Scott Fitzgerald and Johnny Depp.

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