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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2018 22:03:42 GMT
Do you rate him as an author? I thought Miss Lonelyhearts was OK but might be close to Trying Too Hard territory. I don't recall it having much in the way of a resolution.
I think I tried reading The Day of the Locust but don't recall much about it either way.
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Post by telegonus on Jul 7, 2018 5:43:19 GMT
Do you rate him as an author? I thought Miss Lonelyhearts was OK but might be close to Trying Too Hard territory. I don't recall it having much in the way of a resolution. I think I tried reading The Day of the Locust but don't recall much about it either way. A fair assessment, NxNW, although trying too hard isn't quite the way I'd put it. I think that Nathanael West maybe did possess the major talent that he often seemed to be posing he had rather than successfully demonstrating it. Miss Lonelyhearts pushes awfully hard, I agree, although the ending didn't strike me as aiming for resolution. The author simply went as far as he could with his material, wound things up, the way a police reporter would, rather than attempt to make sense of the tale he'd just told. I'd cut the guy some slack due to his early death. He showed a heap of potential early on, and his humor, bitterness and sarcasm have a way of ringing true, or do to my ears.
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mrdanwest
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Post by mrdanwest on Jul 8, 2018 13:00:45 GMT
I would say your assessment is rather spot on.
I actually had had to go to Wikipedia just not to refresh myself on the plot of Day of the Locust despite that fact that I read it only a little over a year ago.
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Post by louise on Jul 11, 2018 19:50:26 GMT
I've never read his books. YEars ago I enjoyed My Sister Eileen by Ruth McKenny, which is very funny. IT wasn't until years later that I found out that the Eileen of the book was Nathaniel West's wife who died with him. It is so sad that she died so young, not very long after My Sister Eileen was published.
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