The Day of the Locust. Nathanael West

Hollywood, 1930s. Cinema becomes the embodiment of the American dream: in an instant, unknown but ambitious people from the street become celebrities - recognizable and rich. But the glittering industry has another side: the struggle for a place under the spotlight is full of falls, betrayals and despair.

Young artist Tod Hackett works at a film studio and writes the painting "The Burning of Los Angeles", which he devotes himself to with great passion. In the wealthy areas and slums of the city, he meets the prototypes of his epic canvas: the fatal beauty Faye Griner, her father Harry - a failed actor, shy, kind, thirsty for love and neurasthenic Homer Simpson, the determined cowboy Earl Shoop, the cocky dwarf Abe Cusick and other people who are looking for money and fame in the "California paradise".

In "The Day of the Locust," Nathanael West created a story about the dual nature of any dream, on the path to which one can either rise to the heights or fall into the abyss.