Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Nathanael West, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 4625 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Day of the Locust, Miss Lonelyhearts, a Cool Million, the Dream Life of Balso Snell. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California during the Great Depression, depicting the alienation and desperation of a disparate group of individuals who exist at the fringes of the movie industry. Time magazine included the novel in its list of 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005, and noted critic Harold Bloom included it in his list of canonical works in the book The Western Canon. The book follows a young man named Tod Hackett who thinks of himself as a painter and artist, but who works in Hollywood as a costume designer and background painter. He falls in love with Faye Greener, an aspiring starlet who lives nearby. Between his work in the studio and his introduction to Faye's friends, he is soon interacting with numerous Hollywood hangers-on, including a cowboy who lives in the hills above the studios and works as an extra in cowboy movies, his Mexican friend who keeps fighting cocks, and Homer Simpson, a hapless businessman whom Faye is taking advantage of. The book ends with a riot at a movie premiere. The original title of the novel was The Cheated. The title of West's work is likely a biblical allusion to certain passages in the Old Testament. Susan Sanderson writes: The title may also refer to the plague that appears in the Book of Joel. The riot that occurs at the end of the bookand its foreshadowing in Tod Hackett's paintingmay be a reference to the apocalypse. James F. Light has suggested that West's use of mob violence in the novel was an expression of a generalized anxiety about the rise of fascism in Europe. L...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=344570 ... Read more