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A Cool MillionFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"A Cool Million: The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin is Nathanael West's third novel, published in 1934. It is a brutal farce of Horatio Alger's novels and their eternal optimism. A Cool Million, as its subtitle suggests, presents the dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin, piece by piece. As a satire of the Horatio Alger myth of success, the novel is evocative of Voltaires Candide, which satirized the philosophical optimism of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Alexander Pope. Pitkin is a typical Schlemiel, stumbling from one situation to the next; he gets robbed, cheated, unjustly arrested, frequently beaten and exploited. In a parallel plot Betty Prail, Pitkin's love interest, is raped, abused, and sold into prostitution. Over the course of the novel Pitkin manages to lose an eye, his teeth, his thumb, his scalp and his leg, but nevertheless retains his optimism and gullibility to the inevitably bitter end.Pitkins troubles, however, don't end with his death. Even after his passing he is exploited as a martyr by the National Revolutionary party, a political organization led by Shagpoke Whipple, a manipulative former American president. Pitkin's birthday becomes a national holiday and American youths march down the streets singing songs in his honor. Whipple speaks out against aliens and calling for a rejection of sophistication, Marxism and International Capitalism. [1] The novel ends with a series of roaring "hails" from the crowd." ... Read more

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Poor Lem
Lemuel, or Lem is the hero of the story but he had bad luck all the way.First, he learned that their house will be foreclosed if they didn't have money to pay the mortgage.Then, he went to New York to make a fortune with a loan from Mr. Whipple by signing away his cow as collateral.But all his money was stolen by slimy Mape who pretended to be rich.Mape left behind a diamond ring that Glazer (pawnbroker & mobster) bought for around $30.However, the cops thought Lem was the thief & put him in jail.His "sweetheart", Betty was an orphan and though she was raped by Bill Baxter, she couldn't remember a thing.However, Tom Baxter also took advantage of her while she was unconscious.Then, she was captured by white slavers & sold to Wu Fong, owner of a brothel. It almost made me cry.In jail, they pulled out all of Lem's teeth & gave him a false set that didn't fit & always fell off. The cops finally caught the real culprit, Mr. Mape, but Lem was in a sorry state when he was freed.His home had been foreclosed and his mom had disappeared.He lost his right eye rescuing an old man & his daughter but the man thought he was responsible for the run-away horses & scolded him.He was given a glass eye & offered a job for $30 a week by Mr. Hainey who told him to go to a jewelry store, pretend to lose his glass eye, offer a reward & leave.He did that at several stores.He was captured by Wu Fong's henchmen & stuck in the brothel.He almost became a male prostitute, but his false teeth & eye fell out.The client became disgusted & left.Wu Fong had him beaten & thrown out of the street. He found out that there was a girl at the brother, not knowing that it was Betty.He told the cop about Wu Fong but the bad cop not only didn't help but threw Lem in jail.Poor Lem met Betty again when she solicited him in the streets.Both of them were hungry & neither had any money.They met Mr. Whipple again & started for Califormia to dig gold with Raven, an American Indian.In the last scene, Lem got recruited by Mr. Whipple's Revolutionary party to give a speech but was shot dead before he could do so.Lem became a "matyr" of the cause.He was just "a boy out to make a fortune" but "jail was his first reward, poverty his second, violence his third & death his last reward".I pity Lem & wonder if anyone can learn something from what happened to him. ... Read more

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You smell that?The rotting flesh, burning hair, wet dog, hot garbage smell?Thank Balso Snell
At its core, "The Dream Life of Balso Snell" is about a guy who, for no apparent reason, climbs into the anal orifice of a massive Trojan Horse.While inside the cavernous digestive track, presumably making his way up the colon, throughout the intestines, and eventually to the stomach, Balso Snell meets several randomly placed people with individualized stories to tell.At each stop, Balso listens to the various tales, learning that each person wishes to express themselves in some literary fashion.With each banally uninteresting tale, however, he ends up avoiding the various characters like one would avoid pungent, human-sized excrement.That's about it.

There are attempts at making the book a philosophical endeavor, or perhaps a poetic parable, but both are really pathetic attempts at covering up the true scatological intentions.Nathaniel West claimed that the point was to "protest against writing books", but the execution is lacking.Sure, West's attempt to irritate readers with a completely incoherent tale, pretentiously intending to confuse or disgust readers with perpetual and obscure references to fecal matter and excretory organs, was successful in that he used it as a vehicle for protest, but it fails to reach the actual desired result because of its actual incoherence, insipid subject material, and tedious slow delivery.

Absent of any truly worthwhile literary merit, I'm reminded of a famous proverb that's often heard in various fashions: If it smells like S#@*, and it looks like S#@*, well, it's probably S#@*. ... Read more

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1963 Farrar, Straus & Company. First Edition. Hardcover, 421 pages. This omnibus edition contains the complete works of Nathanael West, one of the the most original American writers. Nathanael West died in 1940 at the age of 36. leaving behind four novels, all which were published in the thirties.... ... Read more

Product Description
A Cool Million: The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin is Nathanael West's third novel, published in 1934. It is a brutal satire of eternal optimism.

A Cool Million, as its subtitle suggests, presents “the dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin,” piece by piece. As a satire of the Horatio Alger myth of success, the novel is evocative of Voltaire’s Candide, which satirized the philosophical optimism of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Alexander Pope. Pitkin is a typical ‘Schlemiel’, stumbling from one situation to the next; he gets robbed, cheated, unjustly arrested, frequently beaten and exploited. In a parallel plot Betty Prail, Pitkin's love interest, is raped, abused, and sold into prostitution. Over the course of the novel Pitkin manages to lose an eye, his teeth, his thumb, his scalp and his leg, but nevertheless retains his optimism and gullibility to the inevitably bitter end.
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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Suspicion, Five Came Back, Stranger on the Third Floor, a Cool Million, I Stole a Million, Lonelyhearts, Men Against the Sky, Let's Make Music, the Spirit of Culver. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Suspicion (1941) is a romantic psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also stars Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans and Heather Angel. It is based on Francis Iles' 1932 novel Before the Fact. Handsome, irresponsible cad Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) sweeps dowdy Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) off her feet and charms her into running away and marrying him, despite the strong disapproval of her wealthy father, General McLaidlaw (Cedric Hardwicke). After their honeymoon, they set up housekeeping in extravagant fashion, though she soon learns that Johnnie is broke and was hoping to live off her father's generosity. She persuades him to get a job and he goes to work for his cousin, estate agent Captain Melbeck (Leo G. Carroll). Gradually, Lina learns that Johnnie has continued to gamble on the horses, despite his promise to quit, and that he has sold family heirloom chairs given to them as a wedding present to help pay for things. She repeatedly catches him in lies and discovers that he has been caught embezzling and fired from his job, though Melbeck assures her he will not prosecute if the money is repaid. Johnnie's good-natured, if scatterbrained, friend Beaky (Nigel Bruce) tries to reassure her that her husband is a good sort, but without much success. When the general dies, Johnnie is severely disappointed to find that he has left Lina only his portrait which is later seen in some infrequently-used living room. He conv...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=74984 ... Read more