Synopsis
Admired by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, and Dashiell Hammett, and hailed as one of the "Best 100 English-language novels" by Time magazine, The Day of the Locust continues to influence American writers, artists, and culture. Bob Dylan wrote the classic song "Day of the Locusts" in homage and Matt Groening?s Homer Simpson is named after one of its characters. No novel more perfectly captures the nuttier side of Hollywood. Here the lens is turned on its fringes ? actors out of work, film extras with big dreams, and parents lining their children up for small roles. But it?s the bit actress Faye Greener who steals the spotlight with her wildly convoluted dreams of stardom: "I?m going to be a star some day?if I?m not I?ll commit suicide."
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About Nathanael West
N
Nathanael West
1903–1940
Nathan Wallenstein Weinstein was born in 1903 in New York City. He attended Brown University and from 1924 to 1931 he lived in Paris, where he wrote *The Dream Life of Balso Snell*. On his return to New York, he managed a residential hotel and was associate editor, with [William Carlos Williams](https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL219856A/William_Carlos_Williams), of the magazine *Contact*. *Miss Lonelyhearts* appeared in 1933, *A Cool Million* in 1934 and *The Day of the Locust* in 1939. He worked on film scripts in Hollywood for the last five years of his life. He and his wife were tragically killed in a car accident in 1940. *--Penguin Books* Photo *--Wikicommons*
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