Miss Lonelyhearts
Nathanael West
1933
Around 210 pages
It's the Great Depression, so get ready to live in the sunken place. Not that we haven't read depressing novels before, but they have mostly been about dying in war, not having the economy crash. So get ready for sadness's new flavor.
Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed newspaper columnist tasked with writing a newspaper column for the lovelorn and lonely. Which would have totally been me before the invention of dating apps. Miss Lonelyhearts shimself is a pill, who is desperately trying to find meaning in his life, through religion or beating women. His editor Shrike, frequently pranks him and feeds into the notion that everything is awful always.
Certainly not an optimistic book, nor a particularly pleasant novel for those of us who actually like women, art, or media in general. It is an interesting example of detournement, for those of us who like learning about big words and movements outside of university. Unpleasant, and skippable.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
Adapted into multiple films, an opera, and a Broadway play.
UP NEXT: Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
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