THE DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL/A COOL MILLION - NATHANAEL WEST

It’s not too often I get to finish the oeuvre of a certain author. There are maybe only half a dozen authors whose entire bodies (work-wise) I’ve absorbed. Now, by making it through this short book, I’ve finished the other 50% of West’s work. I can honestly say I loved them all. MISS LONELYHEARTS is the obvious peak but now I can say with authority that each opus slaps. Jonathan Lethem claimed that West’s unwritten works are the greatest shadow corpus in American literature and it’s hard to argue when someone goes 4 for 4 with novels before they’re forty. That being said, I think I like these two earlier, and much less famous, novels more than most people would. They are very ridiculous and not “literary” in the character-driven, emotionally realistic sense. In the case of TDLOBS it’s also quite scatological. Actually, the author it most reminded me of was Pynchon, full of silly names and style-pastiche/parody; the sort of thing that’s aiming for a smart-guy-goofing-off vibe. TDLOBS is about the titular Snell climbing into the asshole of the Trojan horse and then wondering around the insides of the horse (that are apparently like a non-wooden horse’s) meeting characters that basically just rant at him and give them their weirdo small bite, Canterbury-tales style. We get pamphlets, crime journals, poems, playlettes, letters, a story about a chain of biographies of biographers, it’s a lot. We never stay with any character, even Snell, long enough for them to grow real characteristics but it’s this whiplash that makes the book fun. It’s over before it grows tedious. A COOL MILLION is likewise in a strange style. I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who’s read a Horatio Alger book. He’s had a very unusual artistic afterlife where the actual art he produced is basically completely unread but the ideas that he championed are thoroughly part of the mainstream. Perhaps because his brand of dumb, boot-straps capitalist propaganda was eventually repackaged to more success by Ayn Rand (who I have read and is quite bad). Irregardless, Alger was a tremendously popular author during West’s brief time alive and A COOL MILLION is a send-up of the Alger myth. You get the classic setup, where a poor but hardworking boy moves to the big bright city to seek his fortune through his hard work and gumption, but then West turns it on it’s head. Instead of a hardworking everyman moving up in the world due to his industriousness, Lemuel Pitkin, the hardworking and naive main character has a series of terrible things happen to him in his pursuit of the American Dream. He’s constantly exploited and taken advantage of, the All-American Girl he’s in love with is kidnapped and sold into YTSlavery in bizarre and somewhat racist (perhaps knowingly so? The tone during these parts, which feature a sort of Fu Manchu parody, was confusing) subplot. He is physically damaged and taken apart, losing toes and eyes and limbs, as he pursues wealth. He’s guided by a sort of demonic capitalist who was the previous President of the USA who seeks to reclaim power. Like all stories about a fascist taking over Amerika, it’s almost unreadable now because it’s so on the nose. The guy even talks about making amerika great again. It’s too much. I liked the novel, tho it’s probably my least favorite of the 4 Wests. I’d’ say they go: MISS LONELYHEARTS, LOCUST, BALSO then MILLION. Maybe I should watch the movies he wrote. 37 lives cut short.