#TheDayOfTheLocust | About The Day of the Locust in English Books| Hashreview

#TheDayOfTheLocust

The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California. The novel follows a young artist from the Yale School of Fine Arts named Tod Hackett. who has been hired by a Hollywood studio to do scenic design Read More..

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Hash title	The Day of the Locust
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Description	The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California. The novel follows a young artist from the Yale School of Fine Arts named Tod Hackett. who has been hired by a Hollywood studio to do scenic design and painting. While he works he plans an important painting to be called "The Burning of Los Angeles," a portrayal of the chaotic and fiery holocaust which will destroy the city. While the cast of characters Tod befriends are a conglomerate of Hollywood stereotypes, his greater discovery is a part of society whose "eyes filled with hatred," and "had come to California to die." This undercurrent of society captures the despair of Americans who worked and saved their entire lives only to realize, too late, that the American dream was more illusive than they imagine. Their anger boils into rage, and the craze over the latest Hollywood premier erupts violently into mob rule and absolute chaos.In the introduction to The Day of the Locust, Richard Gehman writes, the novel was "more ambitious" than Miss Lonelyhearts, and "showed marked progress in West's thinking and in his approach toward maturity as a writer." Gehman calls the novel "episodic in structure, but panoramic in form." In many instances, the novel displays a cinematic effect in which scenes gather speed and zoom in on characters before fading abruptly to the next scene. West never could figure out why his works received such erratic praise and scorn by journalists and critics. West corresponded with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jack Conway through letters, and William Carlos Williams published West's work in his magazine: Contact.
Description	The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California. The novel follows a young artist from the Yale School of Fine Arts named Tod Hackett. who has been hired by a Hollywood studio to do scenic design and painting. While he works he plans an important painting to be called "The Burning of Los Angeles," a portrayal of the chaotic and fiery holocaust which will destroy the city. While the cast of characters Tod befriends are a conglomerate of Hollywood stereotypes, his greater discovery is a part of society whose "eyes filled with hatred," and "had come to California to die." This undercurrent of society captures the despair of Americans who worked and saved their entire lives only to realize, too late, that the American dream was more illusive than they imagine. Their anger boils into rage, and the craze over the latest Hollywood premier erupts violently into mob rule and absolute chaos.In the introduction to The Day of the Locust, Richard Gehman writes, the novel was "more ambitious" than Miss Lonelyhearts, and "showed marked progress in West's thinking and in his approach toward maturity as a writer." Gehman calls the novel "episodic in structure, but panoramic in form." In many instances, the novel displays a cinematic effect in which scenes gather speed and zoom in on characters before fading abruptly to the next scene. West never could figure out why his works received such erratic praise and scorn by journalists and critics. West corresponded with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jack Conway through letters, and William Carlos Williams published West's work in his magazine: Contact.

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Name	The Day of the Locust
Name
Authors	Nathanael West
Authors
Translator
Translator
Genre	Novel
Genre
Series
Series
Number in series
Number in series
Language	English
Language
Country	United States
Country

PUBLISH

Story timeline
Story timeline
Pages	238 pp
Pages
Media_type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Media_type
Isbn	978-0-451-52348-8
Isbn
Oclc	22865781
Oclc
Publisher	Random House
Publisher