Miss Lonelyhearts

Set in New York during the Great Depression, Miss Lonelyhearts concerns a nameless man assigned to produce a newspaper advice column — but as time passes he begins to break under the endless misery of those who write in, begging him for advice. Unable to find answers, and with his shaky Christianity ridiculed to razor-edged shards by his poisonous editor, he tumbles into alcoholism and a madness fueled by his own spiritual emptiness.

New York Times Book Review

The novel is ostensibly a piece of humorous fiction. . . It is ostensibly satiric. But its irony has its roots in it. The wit is hard, brilliant and very funny. . . Miss Lonelyhearts stands to be one of the hits of the year, to win both popular and critical approval. -- Books of the Century; New York Times review, April 1933

Nathanael West — novelist, screenwriter, playwright — was one of the most gifted and original writers of his generation, a comic artist whose insight into the brutalities of modern life would prove prophetic. He is famous for two masterpieces, Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) and The Day of the Locust (1939). He died in a car crash in 1940, while returning to Los Angeles to attend the funeral of his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald.