A Cool Million and The Dream Life of Balso Snell: Two Novels [Paperback]

Nathanael West (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1963

A Cool Million (1934) subtitled "The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin", is a satiric Horatio Alger story set in the midst of the Depression and is written in a bracing, mock-heroic style that has lost none of its wit or power. The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931), West's first work, was described by one delighted critic as "a fantasy about some rather scatalogical adventures of the hero in the innards of the Trojan Horse."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nathanael West was only thirty-seven when he was killed in an automobile accident in 1940. But he achieved his brilliant satiric vision early on, and his depictions of the "grotesque" aspects of the American scene rival those of Poe, Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. West's four works-the two published in this volume and the short novels Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust-firmly established him as one of the most interesting and distinctive of American writers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (January 1, 1963)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374502927
• ISBN-13: 978-0374502928
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,353,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Failures, June 16, 2002

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Cool Million and The Dream Life of Balso Snell: Two Novels (Paperback)

Although he was little known during his short lifetime, Nathanael West's MISS LONELYHEARTS and THE DAY OF THE LOCUST are two of the most influential works of 20th Century American Literature. They are the best of West's work, and I recommend them very highly. But West's work was extremely hit or miss, and this edition of his two lesser novels demonstrate that fact in abundance.

THE DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL is West's first novel, a surrealistic fantasy about a man who stumbles upon the Trojan Horse, climbs into the rectum, and meanders through the horse's lower intestines. Along the way he meets an aesthetically argumentative guide, a biographer who is writing a biography of a biographer, a mystic who is attempting to crucify himself with thumbtacks, and sundry others. There is an abundance of ideas here, some of them quite amusing and entertaining, but ultimately this parody of bad-taste pseudo-intellectualism becomes as bad-taste pseudo-intellectual as its subjects.

Written between MISS LONELYHEARTS and LOCUST, A COOL MILLION satirizes the American dream via an extended parody of the Horatio Alger myth, and presents us with the story of a young man who goes out into the world to seek his fortune--and begins his adventures with his lady love sold into white slavery and he himself cast wrongfully into prison. This is an extremely bitter, often funny novel, and it is considerably more readable than BALSO SNELL, but its dryness quickly becomes tedious and the work lags far, far behind either MISS LONELYHEARTS or LOCUST.

These novels are interesting failures at best, and while West fans will enjoy seeing how the writer developed but both THE DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL and A COOL MILLION have more academic interest than anything else. Recommended for hardcore fans, but all others should pass them by.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A Cool Million" is great!, December 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Cool Million and The Dream Life of Balso Snell: Two Novels (Paperback)

Having read all four of West's novels, I feel that "A Cool Million" is easily the greatest of his works. It presents a sarcastic and cynical view of life in America during the 1930's. The novel is, by the way, a modernization of "Candide," by Voltaire, and it is still fresh after sixty-five years. West is second only to Mark Twain in identifying and attacking society's corruption and vices. The book only gets four stars, however, because it also includes West's worst novel, "The Dream Life of Balso Snell," which is a complete waste of his talents. "Balso Snell" is completely disjointed and unorganized. The main character wanders around inside of a wooden horse and meets various allegorical losers. Now you do not have to read "Balso Snell", because I have just told you the entire story. That the author could produce two works which are such polar opposites in quality and readability is surprising. Buy this book for "Cool Million" - you will not regret it!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A Cool Million": A Stomach Churning Satire, November 9, 2001

By 

IRA Ross (LYNDHURST, NJ United States 07071) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Cool Million and The Dream Life of Balso Snell: Two Novels (Paperback)

Former President of the United States Nathan "Shagpoke" Whipple, now C.E.O. of the Rat River National Bank of the town of Ottsville, Vermont, tells young Lemuel Pitkin, "The story of (John D.) Rockefeller and of (Henry) Ford is the story of every great American...Like them, you were born poor and on a farm. Like them, by honesty and industry, you cannot fail to succeed."

With this advice in hand thus begins Lem's journey to secure his fortune and to prevent the foreclosure on his mother's house. The only collateral Lem can put up for the tiny loan he obtains from Whipple's bank is the family cow. After all, according to the ex-President, you must have some money in order to make money.

"A Cool Million" is Nathanael West's mordantly witty and deeply bitter satire of a decent, but profoundly naive young man's attempts to achieve the American Dream during the darkest days of the Great Depression. West effectively lampoons the false promise of the old maxim that hard work and diligence equals success in America. For all his determination, Lem suffers one horrible indignity after another and is ripped to shreds in the process. A pawn in a facist plot to take over New York City, his final achievement is an unintended martyrdom.

The only thing that prevents me from giving this small gem a 5 star review is the constant feeling of dread that I felt in the pit of my stomach while reading this extraordinarily disturbing novella.