eloisegillard

The Day of the Locust is one of those books that keeps popping up on "Best Book" lists and so it was always one that I was interested in reading. During a recent re-read of my favorite graphic novel Y: The Last Man, Yorick, the main character stated that it was the best book ever written, so that clinched it - I had to read it. It is the story of a set builder in Hollywood set in the late 1930's. It can definitely be described as Hollywood Gothic. It has a set of eccentric, desperate characters trying to make sense of life in a town that nothing is real. Tod Hackett has come from Yale to Hollywood and is working on sets of movies (which he sees as beneath him). Throughout the book, he continues to plan his next painting "The Burning of Los Angeles". As Tod (and the reader) meets desperate character after desperate character...those in which Tod refers to "those who have come to California to die....the painting become more complete in Tod's head as he plots how they'll appear his painting. The symbolism and themes were definitely lacking subtlety. There are passages after passages about the falseness of Hollywood – people dressed as things they are not, build made to represent buildings of other times, fake cowboys that have nothing better to do than stand around pretending to be cowboys. But despite the obviousness of the book, I kept with it and was glad I did. As I was reading, I was really considering a 1 star rating, but the last quarter or so bumped the rating up.

2022-11-14 16:43