Novel
The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West · 1939
Synopsis
Tod Hackett, a graduate of the Yale School of Fine Arts, works on the sets at a Hollywood studio and moves into the San Bernardino Arms, where Faye Greener, a seventeen-year-old aspiring actress, lives with her father Harry, a former music-hall clown who sells a silver polish; the dwarf Abe Kusich lodges there too. Homer Simpson, a former hotel bookkeeper from Iowa who has come to California for his health, falls in love with Faye. A cowboy, Earle Shoop, and a Mexican, Miguel, who camp in the hills, also revolve around her. Tod is preparing a large canvas.
Context
The novel was published by Random House in May 1939; its working title was The Cheated. Printed in three thousand copies, fewer than fifteen hundred were sold, despite the praise of Dorothy Parker, who found it brilliant and savage. It took the 1957 collection of West's novels for the work to find its readers. John Schlesinger made a film of it in 1975, under the French title Le Jour du fléau.
Who it is for
A short novel made up of intersecting portraits, with very dark comedy. Translated into French by Marcelle Sibon.
Prizes and reception
Poorly selling when it appeared and rediscovered after 1957, it is often regarded as the best novel written about Hollywood.
Sources for this page 12
The pages consulted to check this page.