Miss Lonelyhearts - Nathanael West BOOK REVIEW
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- čas přidán 27. 12. 2021
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Every marxist being called trumpist. Quite an irony
Hi
No one ever talks about the fact that a shrike is a butcherbird, a carnivore that attacks and dismembers random victims to batten on their blood and swallow gobbets of their flesh.
Miss Lonelyhearts is emasculated and eviscerated by Shrike. He treats Betty with the contempt he feels for himself, his victimhood, and Shrike...bless his heart!...can't een be arsed to notice he's destroyed this human soul irreparably.
One of the best books I've ever read in my well-over-60 years. Excellent review.
With this in mind, this line from West is more interesting when ML is walking through the park. “He walked into the shadow of the lamp-post that lay on the path like a spear. It pierced him like a spear.”
Also I believe ML used “spikes” to hang up his Christ figure on the wall.
"One must be prepared for the answers to the questian one asks." Man, that is a wise statement.
My wife says “don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers too” I think my x wife also said that. Hmmm.
That intro on the snow was especially impressive. Amazing shot!
West died TWENTY FOUR HOURS after F. Scott Fitzgerald. Two of my favorite writers.
Wow
Woah.
I often compare FS Fitzgerald to JF Cooper: I have read two books written by each. On one side there is ''Gatsby' = brilliant, then there is 'Jazz Age'= incredibly boring by FSF. Then there is 'Mohicans' = brilliant, 'then there is 'Spy' =incredibly boring on the JFC .
wow, very weird. I was thinking about this book and ordering it through the library in the shower this morning and I come home and see this in my subs. what a universe.
One of my favorites! Thanks for this, Cliff!
You watched it!!!! I’m so glad. I knew you would love this one. I remember thinking this when you did your review of Day of the Locust way back when. One of the true American tour de forces-Miss LonelyHearts.
Your description and eloquence of words in describing this book is fantastic. It really paints an atmospheric picture of setting of the scene.
Just want to wish you all the very best for 2022. I hope that your channel goes from strength to strength. Thank you for all the hard work that you do for this channel and it's viewers. So glad to have found your channel. All the best
Absolutely loved this book. Learned about it from Chris Via. Glad you reviewed it. Looking forward to reading Lotus.
This book sounds amazing! Thanks so much for the brilliant review!
This is one of my favorite novels/novelas. Thanks for tackling this baby.
Holy shit someone is talking about Nathaniel West! Very nice Cliff!
In the story, Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column for the lovelorn and lonesome, a duty that the other newspaper staff considers a joke.😄😄😄
I just saw another post on Nathaniel West and started to look at his work for where I could start. This sounds so damn good.
Great review as always, Cliff. I’m a big fan of the channel from Venezuela.
I was wondering if you’ve read Berlin Alexanderplatz. I haven’t, but it seems like a book you’ll enjoy. I think Bolaño loved it. I plan on reading it on 2022.
Thanks Cliff, brilliant as always, a great noir book.
First time reading this book (actually I read in Portuguese, so, don't know if I missed something), reminds me a lot about that idea of "the guy who always gives advice" is the one with the worst life.
Really happy that you liked the book. Been digging on Nathanael West since the early 80s. My favorite author. I also enjoyed your review of Day of the Locust. The other two books, A Cool Million and the Dream Life of Balso Snell, are interesting but not essential. Another book from the Thirties that is a good companion piece to Day of the Locust (featuring fringe characters adrift in Hollywood-as-a-hell-of-existential-despair) is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy.
U r one of the main reasons why i bought Nathanael west LOA edition of his complete novels... ❤❤❤❤
Nice review sir
First time I saw this mentioned was in K. Dick's Man in the High Castle. Quick and cutting read, and Day of the Locust is even more flavorful.
I must read Locust! Only read Lonelyhearts. Quick and cutting style, yes. Reminded me of Fante. Concise sentences.
Thanks for all your enjoyable reviews this year. I have purchased several excellent books that I would have otherwise not known about. All the best for the future of your channel.
Your videos are very inspiring. They remind me of reading Harold Bloom and the motivation he gives me, especially with the more difficult things. You and he are two places I go if I find my inner solitude contracting and my interest in reading declining.
Also, I really want to recommend to you Niels Lyhne by Jens Peter Jacobsen. Would love to get your thoughts on it. It is a book of splendors and depths, and has been somehow forgotten. It is a broken pillar, a veil-shrouded urn. it is sky-blue the way no sky is ever blue.
Hunter S. Thompson loved this book, as does Johnny Depp.
Been on my to read list for a while
I love your reviews and would love to read this books instead of watching to much yt
It's all about creating a daily habit. Just start today ;)
@@funkenschlag5701 started with mechanical orange
@@thedice2578 Nice, the first step is the hardest👍 And when you one day don't feel like it , just push yourself to read a couple of pages so you don't break the habit :)
Nathanael West remains one of my all-time favorites. Day of the Locust, Miss Lonelyhearts, et al; masterful. He was one of the greats. Also: Celine's Journey to the End of the Night is near the very top, if not (arguably) the finest novel ever written. Knut Hamsun's Hunger is another unforgettable tome, as is UK's Derek Raymond's crime novel I Was Dora Suarez. Highly recommend it, folks. Strong belly required for the last one, though. Hits hard. Raw & real.
Please, make a video about Cervantes's Dom Quixote! It's my favorite book ever. Love your videos sir.
He has
I found this book at random at a family member's house and asked to borrow it, had no idea what it was about. Perhaps I'll read it now.
Did you say that you have not read “Brothers Karamazov”…
Probably the greatest book ever.
It will change your life…
Harold Bloom wrote, in the section on Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” in “How to Read and Why”:
“Invisible Man, Melvillean-Faulknerian like Miss Lonelyhearts, The Crying of Lot 49, and Blood Meridian, shares the negative sublimity of all the novels I have been reading in this chapter, and shares also in their greatness.”
I'd love to see some more reviews of Roberto Bolaño's work!
Got turned on to the movie with Monty Clift. Sounds like it was watered down compared to the book. Now inspired to read the book. Thank you!
One of my favorites!
I definitely have to reread it, but I saw ML’s “religious experience” as a breakdown more than a true conversion. When his OCD-like habits failed him, his brain moved on to a numb state, almost like a trance. Great review!
I like some Christmas music :D
Can you review “johnnys got his gun” by trumbo?
Anyone else actually put on Almost Blue while listening to the review?
bought ✅
That book is a sly heartbreaker, I still remember being moved by the sad letters
And West died in a car crash coming back, probably smashed, from F. Scott's funeral.....
What's the name of the movie he is talking about, the Oliver stone one?
Wall Street. Around 1986. Michael Douglas played the Gordon Gecko character Cliff references.
"...and it is scarcely believable these days to think of an intelligence that profound in a man that young." As for my part I am still on the lookout for my "it is scarcely believable these days" phrase opportunity. Yours was well found.
As a personal favor, please include within a future review a sentence to your liking that is comprised entirely of singular words spliced together from other sentences. Wink optional.
RIP to Wilbur Smith, too.
Honestly found it rather tedious. And very American, to the point of banality. Reminded me of 'Ask the Dust' but more contrived and clichéd. I almost expected the narrator to say... ' this dame had legs, legs that went all the way down to her feet.'
Least favorite books?
Next up should be Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses Don't They?
No way! I just read this!
I enjoy Christmas music...
Me too!💕
Christmas "music". Both generous and an oxymoron
I have a question for you Mr. Cliff, why were you're first videos so highly viewed but most of your videos for years don't make it to the 20k to more view count?
As someone interested in economics, honestly the US economy is fine for now. 'Dollar printing' is simplistic, Japan has a public debt to GDP ratio of over 2x the US but no inflation. The main cause of the current inflation really is supply chain issues which will fade next year, some monetary inflation during this period is vastly preferable to a deflationary depression if austerity had been applied.
Believe it or not the real problems occur when the real estate cycle completes in or around 2026 and we enter the next GFC.
Supply chain problems cannot fade away if you got a whole class ruled by mobsters and finance brokers
The estate brokers are part of the crisis.
As I told you... It's a matter of money laundering and bankrupcy.
All planned. Krugman and others were studying classes of workers that profit on crisis.
Open market economics is just war against countries
@@alinebaruchi1936 The supply of many goods is competitive and elastic, but was impacted greatly by the pandemic and that will fade as the global economy repairs. Land, being fixed in supply is a different category and essentially becomes worth as much as a bank is willing to lend to it, that is why in the present system it just keeps going up until a bubble forms and bursts.
My expectation is US CPI will fall to something around 3% end of next year, with many prices stabilising, but rents and house prices and commodity prices keeping inflation above pre pandemic levels. Fed will only raise rates once I expect. This is consistent with the 18 year theory, about half way through the 14 year upswing a mid cycle slowdown/recession occurs and we enter a boom period characterised by higher inflation, infrastructure spending and land speculation.
@@schumanhuman I don't like your theory, it doesn't benefit me
@@schumanhuman I'm saying no
Fuck your expectations
The Dream Life of Balso Snell
I know this may be a little off topic and nobody asked, but I just thought I would share this. Suicide and Hell.
If you commit suicide you are still saved. Grace through faith not works- Ephesians 2:8-9.
I also believe as you have to interpret hell a temporary place, and not of torment, but where the dead rest until the day of judgement. People mix up parables (Not true stories) and metaphors a lot. I believe the lake of fire is eternal death. When Hell is cast into the Lake of fire, there is a reason it is called The Second Death. Where the soul dies, and there is no hope.
I hope this helps someone who may feel confused about such a topic.
GOD bless, and fear nothing, but rather fear GOD (not an unhealthy fear). It's up to you. It always has been your choice. No one else.
Peace and love, stay strong.
I would of been a hotel owner if I didn’t absolutely hate people - some book reviewer on CZcams said once.
👍🇿🇦
The way I think Shrike is supposed to be seen is literally like a clown. Alan Watts used to talk about the similarities between guru's and clowns. They're both breaking reality into laughter. Shrike doesn't take anything serious. He let's people sleep with his wife to not have to entertain her, for example. He represents a break of harmony, wich miss lonelyhearts seeks constantly. He's the reminder for man: don't take you and your life seriously, because doesn't matter how much you try, you're inevitably going to be pathetic to the grand scheme of things, trying to live like a respectable and successful person. First of all, you have to define to your self what is successful, and Shrike does a breakdown of some possibilities, like hedonism, reducing them to mere escapism. Shrike sees literally anything like a joke, even the worst of all disgrace.
I read this book in one session and I laughed hysterically. I lived a pathetic life my self, and I too thought it was ridiculous to say "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" and take life as the most important thing ever. Life isn't any more valuable than the things we experience.
A stupid comment, but, the thumbnail of this video has a coincidentally Trump-like feel to it.
He's marxist
Why are you affecting an image of trump in the thumbnail
Interesting review, but damn, the editing is annoying.
Harold Bloom extremely well read mostly male, white, English written authors. But he was good. Just not that well read.