Miss Lonelyhearts

Last week, a Jeopardy! question was “Who is Nathanael West?” which gave me an itch to revisit this book I last (and first) read back in 1997. I honestly hadn't thought about the book in that time.

Thirteen years was not long enough. Ugh. What an utterly lousy book.

Don't get me wrong, West can turn a phrase – a lot of his imagery is great.

Like this from page 1:
“And on most days he received more than thirty letters, all of them alike, stamped from the dough of suffering with a heart-shaped cookie knife.”

But his word play, his imagery, his skill is wasted on a pointless story about ugly people thinking ugly thoughts and doing ugly things to each other for no reason at all.

Oh, can't forget–that all leads up to an ending as predictable and lazy as it is cliché.

Thanks for nothing, Trebek.