Nathanael West

West, Nathanael (Nathan Wallenstein Weinstein; 1903–40), U.S. author. His acerbic novels about the American dream include The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931); Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), a gloomy satire about a lovelorn columnist; A Cool Million (1934), a lampoon of the rags-to-riches theme; and The Day of the Locust (1939), a surrealistic view of life and failure in Hollywood.