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The Day of the Locust

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 7,702 ratings · 286 reviews

The Day of the Locustis a novel about Hollywood and its corrupting touch, about the American dream turned into a sun-drenched California nightmare. Nathaniel West's Hollywood is not the glamorous "home of the stars" but a seedy world of little people, some hopeful, some desparing, all twisted by their by their own desires--from the ironically romantic artist narrator to a...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published September 6th 1983 by Signet Classics (first published 1939)

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Oct 07, 2012 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

I am recommending this book to you because you should read it. It is set in 2012 America, as you can see from this quote:

Their boredom becomes more and more terrible. They realize that they’ve been tricked and burn with resentment. Every day of their lives they read the newspapers and went to the movies. Both fed them on lynchings, murder, sex crimes, explosions, wrecks, love nests, fires, miracles, revolutions, war. This daily diet made sophisticates of them. The sun is a joke. Oranges can’t ti...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Tfitoby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit

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 seem...more

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Jul 28, 2009 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: if ya wanna be in pictures!

Shelves: california-über-alles

As some of you know, I came dangerously close to packing it in and moving to Los Angeles this winter. I'm from California originally, but the other California, up the Five a ways and then off to the left.... Where I grew up people speak of LA in the same disgusted, dismissive, and morbidly fascinated tones they used to talk about Michael Jackson before he died. The Bay Area is majorly creeped-out by the weirdo plastic-surgery-disaster-of-dubious-morals that is Los Angeles. We hate it for its car...more

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Aug 31, 2009 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100, plain-old-fiction, classic-lit

A grim little tale of a pack of losers leading sad and desperate lives in L.A. in the 1930's. Tod is an artist with a job at one of the movie studios, and he's in lust with Faye, a wannabe actress with no talent and a sick father, who has made it clear that she has no interest in Tod, but that doesn't stop her from teasing him. Homer Simpson (Bear in mind that this was written before Matt Groening was even born.) is a yokel in from Iowa who came to California for his health who apparently has so...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Don Incognito rated it 3 of 5 stars

This satire of Hollywood hangers-on and wannnabes (not celebrities) could be depressing because it's so ugly; but since my physical and spiritual life are both thankfully distant from Hollywood and its noxious culture, I read it with detachment (clinical detachment, perhaps), and found the novel not particularly depressing, only unpleasant. Dead and desolate. The keynote scene for me, that which struck me emotionally more than any other and made an impression to me on behalf of the entire novel,...more

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Jan 05, 2008 Malcolm David Logan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers of modern American literature.

Nathaniel West's examination of the vain, desperate, self-deluded hangers-on at the fringes of Hollywood is perhaps more pertinent today than it was seventy years ago if for no other reason than that these pathetic archetypes seem to be even more among us today, no longer mere aberrations, as they were in West's day.

You have Homer Simpson (no, not that Homer Simpson) a weak, cowardly, deeply depressed man searching for a hint of meaning in his life; Abe Kusich, a nasty, smart-aleck of a dwarf,...more

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Mar 10, 2009 Regina Clarkinia rated it 5 of 5 stars

l.a. book, nat west skewers the shallowness and silliness of movie industry, and the superficialiticality of l.a. in general. how all l.a. is like a movie set. i forget the details but i think something depressing happens.

i love nathaniel west always because no matter how much i try to force myself to be good, think good thoughts and be more calm and intelligent, i always fall back on base humour and sarcastic exaggerations of everything i find ridiculous, which is everything. fitting the bill,...more

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May 17, 2013 Patrick James rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my all-time favourites. You know when you're reading a Nathaniel West you're in for an unconventional tale. But this short novel is the best in the West cannon. What attracted me immediately was how I felt, reading this, that Nathaniel West and I were sharing an inside joke about life as we watched the story unfold from a not very great remove. Faye Greener is a brilliant character whom I've met in real life once or twice, and with whom I share some pathetic traits myself. Todd Hackett is...more One of my all-time favourites. You know when you're reading a Nathaniel West you're in for an unconventional tale. But this short novel is the best in the West cannon. What attracted me immediately was how I felt, reading this, that Nathaniel West and I were sharing an inside joke about life as we watched the story unfold from a not very great remove. Faye Greener is a brilliant character whom I've met in real life once or twice, and with whom I share some pathetic traits myself. Todd Hackett is our protagonist and his name, as one academic has proposed, suggests 'tot' or 'death' in German and 'hacks,' the slang for middling producers of dreck in Hollywood. The title is never directly referenced in the story, but as another scholar suggests, locusts are most likely associated with the biblical plagues of Egypt and the book of revelation. As a newcomer to Hollywood, artist Todd Hackett has been hired for costume design and background painting. It's the Great Depression, and the Hollywood studios' excessive waste (material, aesthetic, and spiritual) stands out in sharp relief. Todd is a nobody and befriends Faye Greener, an extra whose dreams of stardom will never come true. He falls in love with her, despite or perhaps because of her tragic being. Her father Harry, whose character is tramp-like, is a former vaudevillian who purchased full-column favorable reviews in his heyday. He now sells a phony cough syrup door-to-door, quite unsuccessfully. In the glitz of Hollywood, its desperate-to-be-glamourous residents are repulsed by Harry, the Great Depression knocking at their dreamland door. Harry has doors slammed in his face all the time until he has a poor spell and is helped by a man named Homer Simpson. (a complete coincidence according to Simpsons creator Matt Groening) Homer represents some unnamable force, who lives apart, and yet falls for Faye and so tries to be part of her world. When she comes to collect her recovering father at his house, Homer's wealth is immediately apparent and she allows him to pretend he is part of her world. Homer is unlike everyone else, however, because he is no locust. He is rather more like a mantis—hardly visible, but possessing a dormant power and appetite. I found him frightening because potential energy can mean potential harm. This story moves along at a varied pace and with no apparent aim, but results in one of the densest finales I have ever read, which plays out across four pages but tells us so much. As a final comment, the film adaptation is one of my favourite films of all time, despite what many have said about its inferiority to the book. Homer, as played by Donald Sutherland, is darkly menacing and completely innocent at the same time, which I imagine is difficult to portray. I think it his best performance. Karen Black, who really ought to have been in more films, is excellent as Faye. Burgess Meredith (AKA the Penguin on tv's Batman and Rocky Balboa's coach, Mickey) is excellent as Harry. Finally, one of the few starring roles for William Atherton, who would later shut down the Ghostbusters' power grid or get punched out by John McClain's wife, was excellent as a sympathetic but not entirely likeable Todd. A warning though, this is definitely not a great date movie, just as Deer Hunter, Blood Simple, and Eraserhead are not. Trust me, I found out the hard way.(less)

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Mar 16, 2013 Rosemarie Herbert rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

Tod loves Faye, a woman of questionable talents and questionable motives. In a romance gone wrong, Tod fights over her, but never seems to progress on anything - except perhaps his wonderful painting that describes everything that is wrong with American society.

This is another American literature novel for me. It starts out quite slowly, but inte...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Erik Erickson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: prose, fiction

A bunch of weirdos and their messed up lives intersect on the fringes of Hollywood and everything gets more and more tense until a man goes Lou Ferigno on a little boy's torso. It was a nice way to end things, especially since this reader wanted to strangle some of the characters himself by that point.

Funny story: I got this book because I read somewhere that it was science fiction. Or at least I thought i had. Obviously it's not, but the whole time I was reading I kept wondering when someone w...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Garth rated it 1 of 5 stars

"Except for the Romola Martin incident and perhaps one or two other widely spaced events, the forty years of [Homer's] life had been entirely without variety or excitement."

Unfortunately, this book is also entirely without those things. Maybe that's not entirely fair as the book does have some vivid scenes: a visit to a Hollywood studio during the filming of a Napoleonic battle scene, a depressing cock-fight, a brawl in which a little person strikes a violent below-the-belt blow. However, the au...more "Except for the Romola Martin incident and perhaps one or two other widely spaced events, the forty years of [Homer's] life had been entirely without variety or excitement."

Unfortunately, this book is also entirely without those things. Maybe that's not entirely fair as the book does have some vivid scenes: a visit to a Hollywood studio during the filming of a Napoleonic battle scene, a depressing cock-fight, a brawl in which a little person strikes a violent below-the-belt blow. However, the author fails to tie these scenes together because (a) we fail to care about any of the characters and (b) there's little discernible conflict or plot aside from the psychopathic 17-year-old's desire to be a starlet and the desire of all the book's deranged men to sleep with her.

As someone who grew up in Northern California, I appreciate that West wanted to mock all things associated with Los Angeles. However, even the harshest of satires need at least one character that the reader can sympathize with somewhat. Also, I find his lack of subtlety irritating. For example, here’s a description of a house from chapter seven:

“The house was queer… This door was of gumwood painted like fumed oak and it hung on enormous hinges. Although made by machine, the hinges had been carefully stamped to appear hand-forged. The same kind of care and skill had been used to make the roof thatching, which was not really straw but heavy fireproof paper colored and ribbed to look like straw. … In the fireplace was a variety of cactus made of rubber and cork… The table held a lamp with a paper shade, oiled to look like parchment… There was a spool bed made of iron grained like wood…and a Governor Winthrop dresser painted to look like unpainted pine.”

Okay. We get it: everything in Los Angeles is fake. You don’t need to beat us over the head with it. And the sad thing is that this is one of the book’s best passages: even though it’s repetitive, it has an amount of meaning behind it that’s lacking in the rest of the book. The rest of the book is largely consists of West trotting out one horrible character after another. For that kind of heavy, plot-less satire, I think West would’ve been better served writing a short story rather than an entire novel. The fact this work was included on the Modern Library’s “100 best English-language novels of the 20th century” and Time magazine’s “100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005” makes me think less of both lists.
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Apr 26, 2012 Mmars rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a strange & interesting little book this is. Only in California! Only in Hollywood! I'm also going to add that it's an important piece of literature because it captures the desperate outcomes of people who flocked to Hollywood in hopes of becoming rich and famous during the Depression. All these deluded people without talent. I'm reminded of some American Idol auditions. Don't we all feel guilty laughing at them, but the monied producers care not if they make a buck. That is exactly wha...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Liz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: time-s-top-one-hundred

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West.

A novel set during the Great Depression in Hollywood, California ; The Day of the Locust follows an odd group of people struggling with careers, health and love.
Tod Hackett is a sold out artist living in Hollywood, working as a set painter or any job remotely close. He's just getting by when he meets Faye Greener, an aspiring and very whimsy star. Tod meets her net of friends and lovers, which include but not limited to a sickly bookkeeper from Ohio by the...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Taimi added it

Kirja aloittaa Todista. Kuvaillaan hänen ulkonäköään, ei erityisen vetoava kaiketi, hän on taitava maalaamaan ja työskentelee alan parissa, kullan ja kimalluksen keskellä Hollywoodissa. Hänellä on hyvin kunnianhimoisia tavoitteita maalaustensa kanssa, ja kirjan alussa hän kaavailee "tulevaa mestariteostaan" eli Los Angelesin paloa. Hänen tarkka silmänsä on havainnut sen, mitä havaittavissa on. Suuren pula-ajan ihmiset ovat turhautuneita ja tuntevat ainoastaan vihaa. He ovat väkivallan partaalla...more Kirja aloittaa Todista. Kuvaillaan hänen ulkonäköään, ei erityisen vetoava kaiketi, hän on taitava maalaamaan ja työskentelee alan parissa, kullan ja kimalluksen keskellä Hollywoodissa. Hänellä on hyvin kunnianhimoisia tavoitteita maalaustensa kanssa, ja kirjan alussa hän kaavailee "tulevaa mestariteostaan" eli Los Angelesin paloa. Hänen tarkka silmänsä on havainnut sen, mitä havaittavissa on. Suuren pula-ajan ihmiset ovat turhautuneita ja tuntevat ainoastaan vihaa. He ovat väkivallan partaalla jatkuvasti ja muun teeskenteleminen on päivä päivältä vaikeampaa. Hollywood on täynnä unelmia ja elokuvan maailman eläväistä vilskettä, mutta yhtä paljon ja kasvamassa määrin on myös kuolleita unelmia ja hylättyjä lavasteita. Kaikille ei ole sijaa kukkulan aurinkoisella puolella, ja aurinkopaikkojen valinnan mielivaltaisuus ajaa hulluuden partaalle uneksijat Kalifornian auringon alla. Kaikki tavoittelevat sitä mitä kukaan ei ansaitse ja leuat haukkaavat tyhjää ilmaa.

Huvittava juttu. Kirjan toisen päähenkilön nimi on Homer Simpson (Kirja on kirjoitettu 1939... Että unohdetaan vaan heti se keltainen möhömaha joka tulee nyt mieleen). Homer Simpson on neuroottisena syntynyt mies, jonka suuri pula-aika on vienyt todellisen henkisen rappion partaalle ja on työntää hänet siitä ylikin. Hän on ikänsä ollut kirjanpitäjä, ja työn toistuvuus ja yllätyksettömyys tuo hänelle turvaa. Hänellä ei ole oikeastaan ikinä ollut ystäviä, naisia tai juurikaan mitään läheisiä ihmissuhteita. Kaliforniaan hän tuli sairastuttuaan, mutta Tod näkee hänestä heti, ettei hän ole tullut sinne parantumaan, hän kuuluu niihin jotka tulevat "Kaliforniaan kuolemaan". Päättämään kujanjuoksunsa, tekemään viimeisen kirjanpitonsa...

Homerilla on ongelmia käsiensä kanssa, eikä vika ole hermostollinen, vaan nimenomaan psyykkinen. Mies on niin lukossa ja lukko ruosteessa, ettei hänellä ole enää toivoa. Kummitteleva muisto neiti Martinin läheisyydestä, muisto ihmislämmöstä ja hetken hellyydestä on musertaa hänet. Hän ei kykene siihen. Hänen sielunmaisemansa on autio ja jopa hänelle itselleen vieras, aivan kuten hänen ostamansa valmiiksi sisustettu talonsa. Talon kammottavasta tunnelmasta, sen kaikkia mielyttävään pyrkivästä ilmapiiristä tulee mieleen vain yksi niistä hotellihuoneista, joiden laskutuksesta kirjanpitäjämme huolehtii.

Fay Greener on oikea Hollywoodin kukkanen. Hän haluaa tähdeksi ja on alusta loppuun vain yksi suuri naamio. Fay Greener... värisee, aina hallitsemattomasti. Mikään hänessä tai hänen ympärillään ei ole todellista. Todellisuus on unta, unet ovat todellisuutta - hän selailee satujaan kuin korttipakkaa. Ei niin, että hänen elämänsä olisi peliä, vaan pelaaminen on koko hänen elämänsä. Hänellä on joka päiväksi uusi tarina, uusi suunnitelma ja hän esittää ne joka päivänä aina vakavissaan - joko Todille, kuka nyt vain kuunteleekaan... Hän on hyvin varma, suostutteleva. Loppujen lopuksi hän on yhtä lohduttoman epäonnistunut ja kammottavan toivoton, kuin Todin maalaus hänestä, osana Los Angelesin paloa.

Tod ei siedä Homerin heikkoutta, hänen turhaa alentuvuuttaan ja ansaitsematonta nöyristelyä. Fayea hän vihaa eri syistä. Hän haluaa Fayen, mutta Faye torjuu hänet. Kiusaako häntä naisen antama haaste, kutsu metsästykseen? Tod haaveilee Fayen raiskaamisesta jatkuvasti ja kerää alati siihen rohkeutta. Hän haluaisi musertaa Fayen, rikkoa timantinkovan kuoren. Ehkä herättää tämän unestaan, tuhota hänet. Nämä ovat lama-ajan tuntoja, mutta historiallisten yhtäläisyyksien vertailu ei tuota hedelmää. Kuka voi olla varma siitä, mitä Suuren Pula-Ajan ihmisillä liikkui päässään? Siihenpä juuri perustuu koko kirjallisuuden käsite. Epätoivo on vain sana, se ei riitä kuvaamaan sitä hiljaista vapinaa, joka pitää hahmoja otteessaan. Kuin kuvailisi tunteja sitten kylmenneen hiilloksen sihinää. Mitään ei ole enää tehtävissä.

Kirjasta on kuvattu elokuva 70-luvulla. En tiedä haluanko nähdä sitä. Kirjan miljöö oli niin merkillinen, joka omituinen, ja niin tukahdetun hiljainen. Vielä turmeltumaton Los Angeles piirtyi silmien eteen kuin lapsi, joka ei vielä ymmärrä vääriä tekojaan. Mieleen jää matka Earlen ja Miguelin metsäleiriin, joka on aivan ajomatkan päässä kaupungista, mutta on silti kuin toisella planeetalla. Faye ja Miguel tanssivat, kaikesta päätellen omatekoisen tequilan turruttamina. Fayen hienot vaatteet olivat takuulla rapaiset. Kohtaus on villi ja tunnelma arvaamaton. Villi ja arvaamaton on koko kirja. Eikä kolmikosta, puhumattakaan muista, kukaan kestä loppuun asti naksahtamatta. Kyse ei ole edes rahasta. Homerilla on säästönsä, Fayella on Homer ja Todilla toimeentulonsa. Ihminen selviää vähällä rahalla. Mutta ihminen on tuhoontuomittu ilman unelmia.
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Mar 08, 2011 Gabi Ghimis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyable to some extent.

West’s Hollywood lacks endogenous substance; it is a town of travelers who slaved and saved for nothing and who come to “the land of sunshine and oranges” only to find deception. The town amounts to a mélange of architectural and stereotypical oddities: “ only dynamite would be of any use against the Mexican ranch houses, Samoan huts Mediterranean villas, Egyptian and Japanese temples, Swiss chalets Tudor cottages and every possible combination of these styles that lined...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Jaki King rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Day of Locust is one of those novels that I may need to read another two times before I finally grasp all of the underlying themes and complex alliterations. I read it directly after finishing The Pigman and it was a violent shift in writing styles and character development for me. Took me awhile to revert my brain to the appropriate wavelength in which I could appreciate this intricate novel. It begins and ends abruptly so you are left wonder exactly why you were reading about this characte...more The Day of Locust is one of those novels that I may need to read another two times before I finally grasp all of the underlying themes and complex alliterations. I read it directly after finishing The Pigman and it was a violent shift in writing styles and character development for me. Took me awhile to revert my brain to the appropriate wavelength in which I could appreciate this intricate novel. It begins and ends abruptly so you are left wonder exactly why you were reading about this character to begin with. Our rather hapless leader through the whole novel is a man by the name of Tod. He's an artist who came from the Northeast to paint for the 'pictures' in Hollywood. We are introduced to a horrible young aspiring actress by the name of Faye Greener and a helpless lonely man by the name of Homer Simpson. Yup, Homer Simpson was first created by Nathanael West in the 1950's. He is a sad, pathetic character who lets Faye Greener walk all over him. The book makes assumptions that the fakeness of hollywood has become something that all of its residences have taken up as their own as well. Women wearing jogging clothes who just came from lunch, men dressed as cowboys who are actually from Venice. Tod basically believes people come to California to die, and this is where I think I need a second of third read. I 'THINK' at the end of the story Tod realizes that he is just like all of the people he paints. He is just as fake - and he has come here to die just like Homer Simpson.
The author, Nathanael West, has a rather tragic story himself. He was never really acknowledged as an author while he was alive. The Day of the Locust was his last book, he published it right before he was married. While he was on his honeymoon in Oregon his wife and him died in a car crash. Very tragic, very sad. Nathanael wrote The Day of the Locust while living in Hollywood himself and his experiences as a scriptwriter really comes through in his writing. So many amazing quotes and descriptions throughout this entire novel that it was hard to pick a favorite - but I did.

It was definitely not my favorite book, but one of the best written ones that I have ever read. It was rather slow, but surprisingly kept me enthralled to the very last page.(less)

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May 11, 2010 Mateo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Here's a few things that I learned from The Day of the Locust: that back in 1938, they had credit cards; the word "fairy" was understood to mean "homosexual," but "gay" pretty much meant "happy"; there were drag clubs in LA in that era; that even white people sung openly about reefer. In its day, Day of the Locust undoubtably shocked readers with its depictions of dope, lesbianism, extra-marital sex, prostitution, Hollywood excess, and the brutality of cockfights and mob violence, but I suspect...more Here's a few things that I learned from The Day of the Locust: that back in 1938, they had credit cards; the word "fairy" was understood to mean "homosexual," but "gay" pretty much meant "happy"; there were drag clubs in LA in that era; that even white people sung openly about reefer. In its day, Day of the Locust undoubtably shocked readers with its depictions of dope, lesbianism, extra-marital sex, prostitution, Hollywood excess, and the brutality of cockfights and mob violence, but I suspect that the biggest shock to readers of the time would have come from this passage:

"I'm going to be a star some day," she announced as though daring him to contradict her.

"I'm sure you . . . "

"It's my life. It's the only thing in the whole wide world that I want."

"It's good to know what you want. I used to be a bookkeeper in a hotel, but . . ."

"If I'm not, I'll commit suicide."

She stood up and put her hands to her hair, opened her eyes wide and frowned.

"I don't go to shows very often," he apologized, pushing the gingersnaps toward her. "The light hurts my eyes."

She laughed and took a cracker.

In 1938, Hollywood was barely a generation old, and the idea that someone would want to be a star, to be a star and nothing else, would have confounded the general reader as much as it did the hapless, forty-year-old Homer Simpson. (Yes, one of the main characters is named Homer Simpson. No, he does not utter the phrase "D'oh!") Today, of course, we're all far closer to the 17-year-old semi-ingenue Faye Greener; we understand that to be anything but a star is to have wasted your life, to have been condemned to the cruelest fate imaginable, that of not being famous. But even at that early era West saw how the dangling of fame and fortune before the masses could turn those masses into passive nonentities or violent, cruel animals. This is a novel about despair above everything else, and there's nowhere better to set it than Hollywood, which even back in the day manufactured despair as surely as it did two-reeler cowboy serials.

Day of the Locust has much of the same power as Junichiro Tanizaki's superb 1924 novel Naomi, which also chronicled the uneasiness with which the good times, glamor, and easy democratic impulses of modern life could lead people astray. If you enjoyed either of those books, you're likely to enjoy the other.
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Feb 12, 2009 Max rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

I've been craving period Hollywood stories; Day of the Locust left me cold. It's clearly an outsider text: faceless failures approaching a horizon of nothing. This cast of characters-- these "locusts" swarm around the impenetrable barrier of success in 1939 Los Angeles, and while it's true that their futile struggles contain some poetry, the novel seems so minimally sketched that scenarios fall apart, failing to coagulate into something structurally solid. The basic prose never really shines. We...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Matt Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american, modern

The Day of the Locust is Nathanael West's Juvenalian attack on the American film industry, and through it, of mass American culture. It was a bit more concrete and comprehensible than Miss Lonelyhearts, abandoning the unintelligible expressionist nonsense that made the former work such a chore to read.

The plot centers on an illustrator for the film industry and his lust for a young girl, though she drives all the action. The characters are flat for the most part, but this is satire, so that's OK...more

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May 31, 2011 Al Bità rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This American classic still manages to pack a punch with its final apocalyptic vision; and the characters seem to sear their presence into the mind… The book is short and easy to read, perhaps because West uses a style that is almost straight reportage more than anything else — it is only in the final chapter that the writing takes off into a flight of nightmarish visions of increasing horror.

But how one responds to the book really depends on how one relates to Tod Hackett, the sensitive young a...more This American classic still manages to pack a punch with its final apocalyptic vision; and the characters seem to sear their presence into the mind… The book is short and easy to read, perhaps because West uses a style that is almost straight reportage more than anything else — it is only in the final chapter that the writing takes off into a flight of nightmarish visions of increasing horror.

But how one responds to the book really depends on how one relates to Tod Hackett, the sensitive young artist employed as a set designer for a Los Angeles studio. Although the narrative is in the third person, all we see and hear is related as if it were in the first person: it is Tod's vision and sentiments we are provided with, all the way through. With the final image of Tod laughing and loudly imitating the siren of the police car taking him home, one wonders how reliable a narrator he really is. His obsession with the platinum blonde Faye Greener barely conceals his lust for her, and her continual rejection of his advances, when she is depicted as being rather free with her offering of herself to other men, is never quite explained (he is apparently just 'too nice' for her). Most of the people in the novel whom Tod reports on are generally despicable to his eyes (even the one he seems to have the most sympathy for, the sad businessman Homer Simpson, becomes the murderer of the monstrous boy Adore Loomis, made so by his mother who wants him to become a child star). Faye is also described as being particularly stupid, when in fact she seems to be quite capable of fending for herself.

In general, Tod is not happy with the world he is in, and his fantasy painting of the Burning of Los Angeles reveals his true feelings. He is usually in control of himself when there are relatively few individuals about; it is only in the last chapter, when he finds himself caught up on the milling crowds collecting to attend the premiere of the latest Hollywood movie that he becomes truly afraid, and begins to panic in the crush. In the end, he peoples his fantasy of a burning Los Angeles with some of the people he has known, condemning them all in the holocaust he describes.

So how trustworthy is Tod's vision? Hard to say; but West tells us on page 2 of the novel: '… he [Tod] was really a very complicated young man with a whole set of personalities, one inside the other like a nest of Chinese boxes.' It is perhaps because of this that the images and descriptions West makes Tod use can be both vivid and disconcerting at the same time.(less)

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Apr 06, 2011 Gregory rated it 3 of 5 stars

The narrative can be understood as a critique on Hollywood from the perspective of the protagonist, Tod. Tod is a painter who goes to Los Angeles with hopes of making it as an artist. Faye Greener, his love interest, is an aspiring star who hasn't quite made it. In his pursuit he progresses from the world of art into entertainment, struggling to express his true desires and following a girl who is reaching for a dream with so much tenacity that she steps over everyone she meets. Hollywood is a l...more

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Feb 29, 2012 E DB rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to E by: the byc

Tod, the protagonist (anti-hero?) of “The Day of the Locust,” has become obsessed with drawing and painting the “people who go to [Los Angeles] to die.” Because “The Day of the Locust” is full of its own grotesque figures (bleak, tragic caricatures), Tod seems to stand in for West, in some way: after all, their project – to create attenuated portraits of these unfortunates – is united in its cause.

The trouble I have with West is that he dwells so much on portraiture that he neglects purpose. We...more Tod, the protagonist (anti-hero?) of “The Day of the Locust,” has become obsessed with drawing and painting the “people who go to [Los Angeles] to die.” Because “The Day of the Locust” is full of its own grotesque figures (bleak, tragic caricatures), Tod seems to stand in for West, in some way: after all, their project – to create attenuated portraits of these unfortunates – is united in its cause.

The trouble I have with West is that he dwells so much on portraiture that he neglects purpose. We are given to examine these people in great detail – but why? It’s never clear exactly what the purpose is (other than that the awfulness of humanity holds great appeal for the author), and as a result I felt sometimes like a reluctant child dragged through a museum and forced to look at the exhibitions for a long time and in excruciating detail. Surely they were put there for an intended purpose, but what is it? Why couldn’t I just glance and then move on?

So, I think the novel is much too long. We are made to dwell and dwell on Faye Greener and her father Harry (the latter is a failed actor, both repugnant and profoundly sympathetic). The men in the book are preoccupied with Faye, but the book itself is preoccupied with the men, so although Faye gets a lot of time on the page, she remains fairly flat.

Tod chases Faye (rather hopelessly), and makes note of all her suitors, who range from a broke, humorless cowboy to the well-of but pitifully nervous and mild Homer Simpson. It’s difficult to understand Faye’s allure, exactly, except that she seems so determined to be “self sufficient” (West’s words) that she infuriates the men: they seem to want to possess her, or hurt her; their interest, and intentions, are not purely that of sexual interest, but seem to have some further violent impulse behind them.

The book paints an interesting portrait of the ‘30s: there’s lots of “joking” sexual harrassment, and the constant threat of physical and sexual violence is handled with a profound casualness that’s surprising until you remember what the films of that era were like. This is not, however, a black mark against the novel, which is interested above all in some twisted form of authenticity, concerning itself with the ugliest aspects of the American character.

Like Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor, West is interested in crowds, particularly violent mobs, and the final scene of the book (a choking crowd scene) is particularly effective, not least because I became trapped in a similar crushing mob just a few months ago during the lighting of the Christmas tree in San Francisco’s Union Square.
(less)

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Jan 02, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I think I went into this with false/overly-ambitious expectations. Alfred Kazin's introduction, comparing West to Didion and Fitzgerald did not help, nor did the fact that this novel was originally assigned to me over ten years ago for a course and eventually taken off the syllabus because we ran out of time and my (amazing) professor insisted that this short novel was packed with so much rich material we'd never get through it all. Cue my reading, which I enjoyed enough but didn't feel as fever...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Veronica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Veronica by: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels

I felt as though I’d clicked on TCM and was watching a film with one of those actors whose name you can’t recall, yet you know you’ve seen him in…oh, what’s the name of that other movie? I zipped through The Day of the Locust in no time, feeling as though I’d read it before, yet knowing I had not.

It’s Hollywood in the ’30′s with a cast of characters as unique as those found there today; retired vaudevillians, dwarf bookies, cock fighting cowboys, wannabe actors and of course, the femme fatale. W...more I felt as though I’d clicked on TCM and was watching a film with one of those actors whose name you can’t recall, yet you know you’ve seen him in…oh, what’s the name of that other movie? I zipped through The Day of the Locust in no time, feeling as though I’d read it before, yet knowing I had not.

It’s Hollywood in the ’30′s with a cast of characters as unique as those found there today; retired vaudevillians, dwarf bookies, cock fighting cowboys, wannabe actors and of course, the femme fatale. Witness the madness that is Hollywood through drunken eyes, dying sighs and men driven mad by an out a reach beauty. West was clearly disillusioned after moving to Hollywood to write scripts, but that disappointment manifested itself with the publication of The Day of the Locust.

Tod Hackett, the novel’s central character most closely resembles West himself. After working for only 3 months in Hollywood, he acquires an unusual assortment of acquaintances and quickly sees their downfalls as precursors to his own ruin. And he falls for the girl he’ll never have. Clue-She tells him he’s not rich enough and not really too good looking either. To this he takes no offense…

The much sought after, Faye Greener, believes she will be a famous Hollywood star. Okay, so she’s only 17 and hasn’t had her dreams shattered yet so we must give her some leeway. She claims to want a rich and handsome man, yet she is always surrounded by those she deems unworthy. So why is she not elsewhere? Maybe she’s not as clueless as she behaves.

The transplanted hotel accountant from Iowa, Homer Simpson (yes, that is his name) is in Hollywood on doctor’s orders. His life is ordered and completely uneventful until Faye’s father shows up at his door peddling silver polish. Once Faye steps in, it is clear she has found a whipping post. Homer takes Faye in after her father dies and waits on her as though she were a guest at a hotel rather than someone down on her luck. She then moves her male friends into the garage with parties and cockfights on the agenda. Let’s just say, things don’t end well.

Quotes:

Only those who still have hope can benefit from tears. When they finish, they feel better. But to those without hope, like Homer, whose anguish is basic and permanent, no good comes from crying. Nothing changes for them. They usually know this, but still can’t help crying.

Would I love to hang with a man whose circle included William Carlos Williams and Dashiell Hammett? Why yes, I would. West captured the desperation of those who travelled to California with dreams that were quickly smothered in The Day of the Locust. I’d love to talk with him about his time in New York and ask if he could share any tips he got from his pals.

My rating for The Day of the Locust is an 8 out of 10.
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Sep 13, 2011 Jeremy S. rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a book not about Hollywood, but the author's perspective on the human condition. While the backdrop is certainly the movie business, these characters could have been placed in any industry and a similar story could have played out. Lucky for us, West has given us a nice dose of Hollywood glamour and California luxury to go along with his world of desperation, obsession, loneliness and depression.

Todd Hackett has a low level arts job at a movie studio. He lives a relatively normal, quie...more This is a book not about Hollywood, but the author's perspective on the human condition. While the backdrop is certainly the movie business, these characters could have been placed in any industry and a similar story could have played out. Lucky for us, West has given us a nice dose of Hollywood glamour and California luxury to go along with his world of desperation, obsession, loneliness and depression.

Todd Hackett has a low level arts job at a movie studio. He lives a relatively normal, quiet life. The highlight of each day is the chance to see Faye Greener, a stunningly beautiful, wannabe actress that lives in his building. Faye lives in an apartment while she cares for her father, an ailing door to door salesman. Her dream is to became a famous Hollywood star and speaks endlessly about her methods, plans and dreams, but so far has done nothing more than extra work. Todd longs to be with her, but she sees him only as a friend and it drives him mad. Todd becomes a mere bystander and watches different men come in and out of her life, including a transplant named Homer Simpson. After moving to California from the Midwest, Simpson leads a somewhat reclusive life- that is until Mr. Greener comes to his door and he is introduced to Faye. What unfolds is a dark ride in to a world of shady characters, shattered dreams, death and destruction.

This book sold less than 2,000 copies when it was released in the late 30's. West had trouble throughout his career finding a publisher and readership. This makes it even better for me. West has such a pessimistic world view and is a master at exposing weakness and vulnerability in people. We all know someone like Faye Greener. She can mesmerize anyone with her looks and personality, but beneath the surface, she is insecure and utterly terrified. She has more success being a call girl than actress, but she will always put on the front that she's moving up in the world. West's characters are painted so vividly I felt embarrassed and even upset at times throughout the book. Homer Simpson drove me absolutely nuts. He's so spineless it's pathetic and after feeling anger, you feel sympathy (or maybe empathy). To watch Todd unable to control his feelings for Faye is also a highlight. It all leads up to an exciting climax and we are left to ponder the many things that went wrong. While it's true that people can be good and there is hope in the world, evil is a much more polarizing force, and no one did it better than Nathaniel West.

Recommended for fans of great 20th century literature, Hollywood, F. Scott Fitzgerald and those who derive pleasure from watching people suffer.

-JRS (less)

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Apr 09, 2013 Seth Beiler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

There's something truly apocalyptic about Nathanael West's stories. That isn't to say that he is a prophet of doom. Instead, his prose honestly depicts the ennui of the human condition and all of the wrath and bitterness that stems from the layman's disappointment at being unremarkable--at living unremarkably. His prose is beautiful and richly descriptive, like a more poetic Hemingway (since I'm a fan of sloppy comparisons).

West also dismantles the traditional faux-Christ figure by exposing the...more

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Jul 25, 2010 A rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a great book. It's a wonderfully dark and surreal look at the fakeness of Hollywood and the destructiveness of people. It deals with sex and drinking and child actors and cock fights and just general crazies. The main characters are sad, pathetic people who have deluded themselves into following the 'American Dream', and you feel sorry for them. But at the same time, they disgust you. The novel slowly builds, at first showing them fairly normal, and then heaping on flaws and weirdness un...more

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Jul 01, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: big-white-square

At the cabaret:
"Homer (Simpson!) and Tod applauded him.
'I hate fairies,' Faye said.
'All women do.'
Tod meant it as a joke, but Faye was angry.
'They're dirty,' she said.
He started to say something else, but Faye had turned to Homer again. She seemed unable to resist nagging him. This time she pinched his arm until he gave a little squeak.
'Do you know what a fairy is?' she demanded.
'Yes,' he said hesitatingly.
'All right, then,' she barked. 'Give out! What's a fairy?'
Homer twisted uneasily, as thoug...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Chad Whittle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2011, the-grotesque, modern-library-top-100-novels

The Day of the Locust is one of those books that keeps popping up on "Best Book" lists and so it was always one that I was interested in reading. During a recent re-read of my favorite graphic novel Y: The Last Man, Yorick, the main character stated that it was the best book ever written, so that clinched it - I had to read it.

It is the story of a set builder in Hollywood set in the late 1930's. It can definitely be described as Hollywood Gothic. It has a set of eccentric, desperate characters t...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Brad rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: about-violence, hopes-dashed-like-an-egg-on-cement

Book 130. The last book in my 2011 goodreads Reading Challenge

Just before I started reading The Day of the Locust, I read something that compared Nathanael West favourably to Hemingway and Fitzgerald, suggesting that his proper place was amongst the literary elite of his day.

I kept a watchful eye open for anything that hinted at a quality on par with Papa or Scott, but once the book started to take shape, I found myself trying, instead, to find a comparison that could accurately describe how it...more

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About Nathanael West

Born Nathanael von Wallenstein Weinstein to prosperous Jewish parents; from the first West set about creating his own legend, and anglicising his name was part of that process. At Brown University in New York, he befriended writer and humourist S. J. Perelman (who later married his sister), and started writing and drawing cartoons. As his cousin Nathan Wallenstein also attended Brown, West took to...more

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Books by Nathanael West

Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust

Miss Lonelyhearts and A Cool Million, or, the dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin

A Cool Million and The Dream Life of Balso Snell: Two Novels

Novels and Other Writings : The Dream Life of Balso Snell / Miss Lonelyhearts / A Cool Million / The Day of the Locust / Letters (Library of America #93)

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