The way things really are

Miss Lonelyhearts is a book about what's really happening out there. Most of the people inhabiting this planet are blessed by the evolution with a cognitive bias which allows then not to concentrate on the "negative". Nathanael West, as well as his protagonist known in the book by his "pen name" Miss Lonelyhearts are both denied this blessing. They see things the way things really are. Which is, according to the "depressive realism" concept is the correct way to see the reality.

The protagonist, Miss Lonelyhearts, works for a newspaper. His work is to read letters by the newspaper subscribers, and based on them to write a newspaper column giving advice and providing support and counseling to the readers in their difficult situations. The problem with Miss Lonelyhearts is that he's so much depressed by unspeakable human suffering he encounters in the letters and life around him that he can't in earnest give any advice or consolation his readership expects from him.

In fact, the only advice he can give to his readers is suicide, but his editor says that his job is to increase the subscriber base, not to decrease it. This is an example of dark humor characteristic of Nathanael West. The book abounds with this type opf humor. It's also very poetic, and philosophical. The central chapter, "Miss Lonelyhearts in the Dismal Swamp", explains the terrible bind Miss Lonelyhearts finds himself in, both with his newspaper job - and with his life itself. West's power as a poetic prose writer and philosopher is especially clear in this chapter.

The events in this small book steadily take turn from bad to worse, and the protagonist, trying to emphasize with his readers' suffering, is murdered in the end by the crippled husband of one of the readers, who forces herself on Miss Lonelyhearts as a lover while he can't spare himself neither from her advances nor from her husband's friendship which eventually turns to violent hatred.

"Miss Lonelyhearts" should be compared with "The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh, they have many similar characters and parallel plot developments, even though they're very different and compliment each other in many ways. "The Loved One" actually has certain common themes with another West's novel, "The Day of the Locust", too.

West was a very powerful writer, this can be clearly seen in "Miss Lonelyhearts", as well as in "The Day of the Locust". Both deserve to be much better known, but, probably, they're to dark and unsympathetic towards American public (and humanity in general) to enjoy wider recognition. Amazon