The Day of the Locust

Nathanael West
1939
Rating: 8

Believe I snapped this one up after seeing it on a magazine’s “best of the century” list, and it did not disappoint. The writing is frequently funny, West has a witty and quirky sensibility, and the novel’s themes are complex and thought-provoking. The subject matter is also interesting, as was the novel’s treatment of sex, which was not explicit but was the conversations around sex were candid and mildly racy.

I have nothing bad at all to say about the novel, and can see why it made it onto that list. I also had a strong sense as I finished it that there was stuff that I’d missed after only one read, and when I looked at it’s wiki page I saw that there were a couple of interesting patterns that I had not caught the first time through, such as several instances of interrupted sex. I feel like this is a novel that I would happily re-read at some point.

It’s interesting that this came out the same year as Ask The Dust, which is also set in LA, but is not about the film industry. Locust is a much better novel, if you can only read one.

It’s a very dark novel, there are no good-guys to speak of, or good gals, maybe with the exception of Homer Simpson (and that becomes complicated later in the story).

West had a lot to say about the country, Hollywood, and politics, but he said what he needed to with a light hand. The stakes often felt sort of low, the action buffoonish, until they didn’t and it wasn’t.

I recommend it highly.