The Day of the Locust (1939) By Nathanael West

 

The Day of the Locust is one of several novels written by Nathanael West. I do not think it is well written, but I will give the author a pass for now because I have not read his other works, not even the well-regarded Miss Lonelyhearts.

The novel is set in Hollywood in the 1930s and details the lives of individuals who have migrated there with the hope of making it big in the movie industry. But “Mecca of broken dreams” is the common denominator and bottom line for all of them. The novel presents in detail the downside of hoping without hope.

There are three primary characters: Tod, a studio production illustrator; Faye a young and blonde wannabee actress; and Homer, an accountant who has come to southern California for his health. There are several secondary characters, some quite memorable, all stereotypes, to represent the dreams of others.

I found the movie (1975) to be every bit the downer as the book, and in fact I was surprised anyone would even think of making this into a movie. The movie was though perfectly cast, with William Atherton as Tod, Karen Black as Faye, and Donald Sutherland as Homer. It received a half dozen or so award nominations, but won only in the costume category, a win I agree with.

Recommendation:  No, though I will at some point read Miss Lonelyhearts.

A Son at the Front (1923) By Edith Wharton

 

I have never read anything by Edith Wharton before, even though her Age of Innocence book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921, the first woman author to be so honored. I always considered her just another “gilded age” writer, along with F. Scott Fitzgerald. How wrong I was.

This week I read her 1923 novel A Son at the Front, a title borrowed from the parents of soldiers in the first World War. Wharton lived in Paris throughout the War.

A focal point of the story is a young man named George, his parents are Americans, but he was born while they were in France making him a French national subject to the French military mobilization guidelines even though everyone considers him to be an American.

His father John Campton is a successful portrait artist who went to Paris along with his wife Julia (because do not all artists end up in Paris?). His socialite mother tired of being an artist’s wife, divorced him, and married Anderson Brant, an extremely rich banker.

Campton has spent much of his life bitter that George as a child lived with his mother and her new husband. To put it mildly he hates Brant for being able to provide George with every material thing and all the connections he needs.

Much of the storyline deals with the dynamic between Campton and Brant, who begin the story conspiring, each in his own way, to keep George out of the military. George is indifferent to the service though his thoughts on the “war to end all wars” evolves during the war and he enlists. Over the course of the book Campton and Brant will learn they each care deeply for George and learn to respect each other for the roles they play in his life. And although they want to protect him realize that he has a right to make his own decisions – a point his mother never concedes.

There are many other characters entailed in this story, all interesting subplots, weaving them together is done masterfully.

Recommendation:  Highly Recommended, the book is pure genius.