Monday, September 24, 2012

Nathanael West - Miss Lonelyhearts

"Ugh. What an utterly lousy book."


"What a bizarre book. Maybe it's that it was written so long ago, but I just found so many of the dialogue, scenes, and situations so strange that I didn't get people's responses to anything about 95% of the time."


"Life is bleak. Boo-hoo. Don't read this book unless they force you to do it for school. Avoid like poison otherwise."


"The characters are all supposed to be in deep emotional despair, but it is impossible to connect with them or their pain because so little of their lives is available to us. They are dressed up cardboard, mannequins wearing clothing. In the end, these are people we don't know and don't care about. They are riders on the subway of life. We get on, we notice they are absorbed it their own thoughts, their own pains. But the vision lingers only so long as it takes to exit the next stop. There is nothing there, no connection to remember them by. In the end we just don't care about them. We have our own lives to live. West is not up to the challenge. In all, a very unsatisfying read. Don't buy into the hype."


"a new veiw
while the writers craft may be good, and there are many levels to this story, it is not one to contrive morals from."

No comments:

Post a Comment