Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust

You can argue about which of the two great novels Nathanael West wrote in his short career is the greatest, Miss Lonelyhearts, the searingly compressed tale of a newspaper columnist beset by cynicism and human anguish, or The Day of the Locust, the unrelenting and unmatchably withering satire of Hollywood aspiration, but here's the thing: you can get them both in the same book. And it's a tiny little book, pound for pound the best literary value in American lit! (I've taken the liberty of using the old, perfect cover for the book, not the lesser one New Directions switched to about ten years ago, which is the one I'll have to sell you in the store.)