I had long wanted to read Miss Lonelyhearts by N. West. When Allie offered to host Modern March, I knew this would be a great opportunity to do so.
When I finished it, I was perplexed. Too many feelings, sometimes contradicting each other, left me wondering at the messages West was trying to get across. I couldn't say I didn't like it, but reading Miss Lonelyhearts certainly was not easy...
Dealing with religion is never easy. There's never a universally accepted manner in which to portray one's struggle with moral values and the contrast with modern life. Combined with a failed society, in the midst of an economic depression, one can feel the despair Miss Lonelyhearts experiences in his daily life.
Miss Lonelyhearts is an advice columnist, receiving lots of letters asking for a ray of hope. His conviction is that Christ is the answer for their ailments, but Shrike, his boss, thinks otherwise - they need this column to increase newspaper circulation, so art has to be used instead, because art is all about suffering...
