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Nathanael West: Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust (New Directions, 1969)

Nathanael West: Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust (New Directions, 1969)

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STAFF PICK: "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust" - two novels by Nathanael West published together.

247 pages
8 x 5.25 in
ISBN: 978-0811202152
New Directions (1969)
*First edition

Set in New York during the Great Depression, “Miss Lonelyhearts” concerns a nameless man assigned to produce a newspaper advice column — but as time passes he begins to break under the endless misery of those who write in, begging him for advice. Unable to find answers, and with his shaky Christianity ridiculed to razor-edged shards by his poisonous editor, he tumbles into alcoholism and a madness fueled by his own spiritual emptiness.

A defining tale of Hollywood’s underbelly, “The Day of the Locust” is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West set in Hollywood, California. The novel follows a young artist from the Yale School of Fine Arts named Tod Hackett, who has been hired by a Hollywood studio to do scene design and painting. While he works, he plans an important painting to be called ‘The Burning of Los Angeles’, a portrayal of the chaotic and fiery holocaust which will destroy the city.

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