Bøger af Nathanael West

Tod Hackett is a brilliant young artist - and a man in danger of losing his heart. Brought to an LA studio as a set-designer, he is soon caught up in a fantasy world where the cult of celebrity rules. But when he becomes besotted by the beautiful Faye, an aspiring actress and occasional call-girl, his dream rapidly becomes a nightmare. For, with little in the way of looks and no money to buy her time, Tod's desperate passion can only lead to frustration, disillusionment and rage...

Viiltävä klassikkoteos Hollywoodin filmiteollisuudesta.Eletään 1930-lukua. Tod Hackett on nuori taidemaalari, joka on vastikään muuttanut Hollywoodiin. Kykyjenetsijä kiinnostui Hackettin töistä Taidekorkeakoulun oppilasnäyttelyssä, ja niin Hackett päätyi opiskelemaan lavastusta ja pukusuunnittelua elokuvamaailman keskuksessa. Lavastaminen ei kuitenkaan ole Hackettin mielessä päällimmäisenä – hän suunnittelee maalausta nimeltään Los Angelesin palo. Viimeistään se näyttäisi koko maailmalle Hackettin kyvyt. Vaan mistä taulussa onkaan loppujen lopuksi kyse? Ja millaiset ovat Hollywoodin todelliset kasvot?Heinäsirkan aika on Nathanael Westin monikerroksellinen romaani, joka on yltänyt Yhdysvalloissa klassikkoasemaan.Yhdysvaltalainen kirjailija Nathanael West (1903–1940) työskenteli myös käsikirjoittajana. Häneltä on suomennettu muun muassa teokset Balso Snellin unielämä sekä Heinäsirkan aika.

Miss Lonelyhearts is a novella by Nathanael West. It is about a male newspaper advice columnist who provides advice to lonesome people who becomes so affected by their desperate letters that he spirals into depression, drinking, and ill-considered sexual affairs, which leads to his downfall. In the story, Miss Lonelyhearts is the pseudonym for an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column for the lovelorn and lonesome, a duty that the other newspaper staff consider to be a joke. As Miss Lonelyhearts reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional bar fights. He is also the victim of the pranks and cynical advice of Shrike, his feature editor at the newspaper.

Praised by great writers from Flannery O'Conner to Jonathan Lethem, Miss Lonelyhearts is an American classic. A newspaper reporter assigned to write the agony column in the depths of the Great Depression seeks respite from the poor souls who send in their sad letters, only to be further tormented by his viciously cynical editor, Shrike. This single volume of Miss Lonelyhearts features its original Alvin Lustig jacket design, as well as a new introduction by Harold Bloom, who calls it "my favorite work of modern American fiction."

Nathanael West was only thirty-seven when he died in 1940, but his depictions of the sometimes comic, sometimes horrifying aspects of the American scene rival those of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. A Cool Million, written in 1934, is a satiric Horatio Alger story set in the midst of the Depression. The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931) was described by one critic as "a fantasy about some rather scatological adventures of the hero in the innards of the Trojan horse."

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."

Fru Hjertesorg er navnet på en mandlig klummeskribent i en avis i New York Times. Han bliver drillet af de andre på redaktionen, som synes, at hans klumme er noget sentimentalt pjat. Men fru Hjertesorg tager de mange henvendelser fra ensomme, elskovssyge læsere alt for nært og falder hen i en dyb depression med alkoholisme som sin tro følgesvend. Han forsøger hvad som helst for at undslippe de deprimerende tanker, men hverken religion eller risikable affærer synes at hjælpe."Fru Hjertesorg" er en satirisk roman, hvori den trykkende desillusion, der herskede i USA under depressionen i 1930’erne, for alvor får en stemme. Bogen regnes blandt en af samtidens vigtigste romaner og skaffede Nathanael West en stor læserskare.idden /title /head body center h1 403 Forbidden /h1 /center /body /htmlNathanael West (1903-1940) var en amerikansk forfatter og manuskriptforfatter. Han er bedst kendt for sine to satiriske romaner "Fru Hjertesorg" og "Græshoppens dag". Nathanael West er blevet kaldt "Amerikas Kafka", den amerikanske drøms ironiske profet.

Fru Hjertesorg er navnet på en mandlig klummeskribent i en avis i New York Times. Han bliver drillet af de andre på redaktionen, som synes, at hans klumme er noget sentimentalt pjat. Men fru Hjertesorg tager de mange henvendelser fra ensomme, elskovssyge læsere alt for nært og falder hen i en dyb depression med alkoholisme som sin tro følgesvend. Han forsøger hvad som helst for at undslippe de deprimerende tanker, men hverken religion eller risikable affærer synes at hjælpe."Fru Hjertesorg" er en satirisk roman, hvori den trykkende desillusion, der herskede i USA under depressionen i 1930‘erne, for alvor får en stemme. Bogen regnes blandt en af samtidens vigtigste romaner og skaffede Nathanael West en stor læserskare.Nathanael West (1903-1940) var en amerikansk forfatter og manuskriptforfatter. Han er bedst kendt for sine to satiriske romaner "Fru Hjertesorg" og "Græshoppens dag". Nathanael West er blevet kaldt "Amerikas Kafka", den amerikanske drøms ironiske profet.

Day after day, 'Miss Lonelyhearts' sits in his office responding to letters from 'Broken-hearted, Sick-of-it-all, and Desperate', dispensing words of hope, inspiration, and other platitudes to get his readers through their tormented days. But it's all getting to be too much for Miss Lonelyhearts. Under the weight of his colleagues' mockery and the endless gloom of his correspondence, Miss Lonelyhearts finds himself crippled with cynicism and dysfunction. Set in New York City at the height of the Great Depression, Miss Lonelyhearts stands as one of the most intelligent and hilarious works of the 20th century. Laced with dark humour, irony, and razor-sharp insight, this novel is as hauntingly relevant today as it was nearly a hundred years ago. 'Wildly funny, desperately sad, brutal and kind, furious and patient, there was no other like Nathanael West.' - Dorothy Parker 'In dark times, Miss Lonelyhearts shines the brightest light in the blackest places. For this reason West's novel has never felt more alive than today.' - The Daily Beast 'A miniature comic epic.' - Edmund Wilson 'Rendered with scalpel-precision . . . Nathanael West's masterpiece is a mercilessly unsympathetic novel on the theme of sympathy.' - Jonathan Lethem

In The Day of the Locust a young artist, Tod Hackett, arrives in LA full of dreams. When he meets Faye Greener, an aspiring actress, he is intoxicated and his desperate passion explodes into rage... Miss Lonelyhearts is a decidedly off-kilter, darkly comic tale set in New York in the early 30s.

Tod Hackett is a brilliant young artist - and a man in danger of losing his heart. Brought to an LA studio as a set-designer, he is soon caught up in a fantasy world where the cult of celebrity rules.But when he becomes besotted by the beautiful Faye, an aspiring actress and occasional call-girl, his dream rapidly becomes a nightmare. For, with little in the way of looks and no money to buy her time, Tod's desperate passion can only lead to frustration, disillusionment and rage ...

Græshoppens dag er en roman om Hollywood bag scenen. Los Angeles bliver portrætteret som en solskoldet endestation for mennesker, der venter på at dø eller drømmer om at leve, blive stjerner, blive noget.I dette groteske univers, hvor der ikke længere er forskel på drøm og virkelighed, finder vi maleren Tod Hackett. Og gennem ham træffer vi en række af drømmemaskinens ofre: Faye Greener, den yppige, stupide starlet og knudemanden Homer, som ikke kan holde styr på sine hænder – samt en række andre bizarre og trivielle eksistenser.I bogens slutning eksploderer alle de voldsomme understrømme, da et premierepublikum går amok. Los Angeles står i flammer.Græshoppens dag er et ironisk billede på det moderne massemenneskes situation. Vi har selv bygget drømmemaskinen, og vi kommer til at sætte ild til livsløgnen. Det er ikke uden grund at Nathanael West er blevet kaldt ”Amerikas Kafka”, den amerikanske drøms ironiske profet.