West, Nathanael. The day of the locust, London : Secker and Warburg, 1957.
This short somewhat bitter novel provides an intense experience for the reader of serious fiction. Its appeal lies in the exploration of what might be described as the "underbelly"of Los Angeles, on the cusp of WW11. The Day of the Locust was West's last work and his most famous. It is a world of an unglamorous Hollywood and the unsuccessful small-time players who parlay an existence on the fringes of the big movie studios.
What impresses most is a tangible sense of place. The author's precise use of language conjures the climate, topography, streets, buildings and vegetation of Los Angeles - from Sunset Boulevard to the San Barndino Mountains. West uses unflinching naturalistic dialogue as we follow the characters from dingy apartments to brothels, staged cock-fighting, to a big Hollywood premiere. The novel explodes in an almost surreal climax as though the author finds no chance of human redemption in mid-century America.
Nathanael West died in a car crash at the age of 40, soon after completing this work. He received posthumous recognition and is far from forgotten. Today he is viewed as a writer who was ahead of his time and a forerunner of novelists such as William Rice Burroughs. The book was adapted for the cinema in 1973 but was a box-office disappointment.
1940's Hollywood: Movie and Radio Studios and Landmarks
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Nathanael West died in a car crash at the age of 40, soon after completing this work. He received posthumous recognition and is far from forgotten. Today he is viewed as a writer who was ahead of his time and a forerunner of novelists such as William Rice Burroughs. The book was adapted for the cinema in 1973 but was a box-office disappointment.
1940's Hollywood: Movie and Radio Studios and Landmarks
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