The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West has been called the best novel ever written about Hollywood.
West died in 1940, a year after this was published to acclaim, going on become a classic. It's harsh and grim - the story of the nobodies who come to California for health and fame, but walk through life as extras.
Tod wants to be a designer for the movies, and is enamoured with Faye who lives in his apartment block - a cheap amateur without talent, a background dancer in short films with dreams of stardom. She'll have nothing to do with him, unless he is paying for dinner for her and her several other beaus - irritating Tod as she will prostitute herself for other men. Faye's father is a washed up vaudevillian who has seen it all and their friends are background extras in crowd scenes when they can get it. They spend their time going to cockfights and drinking for excitement, careful to not mention their dreams have stalled. When Faye disappears with a Mexican, the group disperses and Tod wanders - attracted by the klieg lights of a movie premiere, the excited crowd surging and crushing to glimpse celebrity, desperate for a taste of the Hollywood that only exists in the movies.
Written in 1939, West captures the alienation and sadness of broken dreams, with characters who continue to wander without purpose, hoping to be 'discovered' and move forward. Faye maintains a delusion of imminent stardom, the others are just happy to get work where they can. Tod marvels at the confluence of Los Angeles architecture - Mexican ranch, Samoan hut, Rhine castle, Arabian - all phony facades, as is the costume dress of the locals, all a mask. Dark and cynical, there is no happy ending here, although the novel ends in a slightly more optimistic way than the 1975 film starring Donald Sutherland and Karen Black, which had the same black tone as Pennies From Heaven with Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters - both films advertised as a glamorous look at the Golden Age of the 1930's but instead gave audiences a bleak reality.
Nothing else like it, but you have to be willing to accept a dark read.
My other reviews of Nathanael West:
1939 / Tradeback / 185 pages
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