West, Nathanael (1903–1940)
US writer. He is noted as an idiosyncratic black-humour parodist. His surrealist-influenced novels capture the absurdity and extremity of American life and the dark side of the American Dream. His most powerful novel, The Day of the Locust (1939), is a vivid exploration of the apocalyptic violence given release by the fantasies created by Hollywood, where West had been a screenwriter.
His other work consisted of The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931), a surreal comedy written in Paris; Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), a black farce about a newspaper agony columnist who feels the misfortunes of his correspondents; and a A Cool Million (1934), which satirizes the rags-to-riches dream of success. West and his wife died in a car accident.
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