A Wasteland of Contradictions: The California Dreams of Nathanael West

LiteraryTraveler January 25, 2025

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From The Literary Traveler Archive:
By Jim Tejani

El Centro, California lies sixty miles inside the Arizona border in Imperial County. This formidably-named milieu can pass all but unnoticed astride the whir of Interstate-8. It stands a paradox - a place where agriculture impugns the harsh realities of the desert, where pastoral farmlands defy the ever-expansive urban center to the west, where past and present remain eerily coalesced.
El Centro marks not "the center" but rather the fringe of Southern California, making it a true point of entry into the world of Nathanael West's The Day of th...

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Categories: Articles

Tags: American Authors, American Literature, California, Day of the Locust, Magic Realism, Nathanael West, The Dream Life of Balso Snell

A Wasteland of Contradictions: The California Dreams of Nathanael West

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