Lonelyhearts: The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney

by Marion Meade

A “breezily entertaining” look at the comic couple who hobnobbed with Dorothy Parker, S. J. Perelman, Bennett Cerf, and other luminaries of their day (The New York Times Book Review). Nathanael West—author, screenwriter, playwright—was famous for two Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust, which remains one the most penetrating novels ever written about Hollywood. He was also one of the most gifted and original writers of his generation, a scathing satirist whose insight into the brutalities of modern life proved prophetic.   Eileen McKenney—accidental muse, literary heroine—grew up corn-fed in the Midwest and moved to Manhattan’s Greenwich Village when she was twenty-one. The inspiration for her sister Ruth’s stories in the New Yorker under the banner of “My Sister Eileen,” she became an overnight celebrity, and her star eventually crossed with that of the man she would impulsively marry.   Together, Nathanael and Eileen had entrée into a social circle that included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dashiell Hammett, Katharine White, and many of the literary, theatrical, and film luminaries of the era. But their carefree, offbeat Broadway-to-Hollywood love story would flame out almost as soon as it began. Now, with “a great marriage of scholarship and gossip” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune), this biography restores West and McKenney to their rightful place in the popular imagination, offering “a shrewd portrait of two people who in their different ways were noteworthy participants in American culture during one of its liveliest periods” (Los Angeles Times).   “Opens a window onto the lives of writers in 1930s America as they struggled with anxieties, pretensions, temptations and myths that confound our culture to this day.” —Salon.com   “The first to fully chronicle and entwine these careening lives, Meade forges an engrossing, madcap, and tragic American story of ambition, reinvention, and risk.” —Booklist, starred review

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Literature, Biography Memoir, American

433 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Marion Meade is an American biographer and novelist, whose subjects stretch from 12th century French royalty to 20th century stand-up comedians. She is best known for her portraits of literary figures and iconic filmmakers.

Her new book, Lonelyhearts: The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney, is a joint biography of a husband and wife whose lives provide a vivid picture of the artistic milieu of the Jazz Age and the Great Depression.

For more information on Lonelyhearts--and an exciting photo gallery--visit http://www.nathanaelwest.com

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewing this book, I am more grateful than ever to the innovator who thought up the decimal-star system. No way could I rate this four stars, and three-and-a-half is a little mingy, so I really give it 3.8 stars.

The Publisher Says: NATHANAEL WEST—novelist, screenwriter, playwright, devoted outdoorsman—was one of the most gifted and original writers of his generation, a comic artist whose insight into the brutalities of modern life proved prophetic. He is famous for two masterpieces, Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) and The Day of the Locust (1939). Seventy years later, The Day of the Locust remains the most penetrating novel ever written about Hollywood.

EILEEN MCKENNEY—accidental muse, literary heroine—was the inspiration for her sister Ruth’s humorous stories, My Sister Eileen, which led to stage, film, and television adaptations, including Leonard Bernstein’s 1953 musical "Wonderful Town". She grew up in Cleveland and moved to Manhattan at 21 in search of romance and adventure. She and her sister lived in a basement apartment in the Village with a street-level window into which men frequently peered.

Husband and wife were intimate with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Katharine White, S.J. Perelman, Bennett Cerf, and many of the literary, theatrical, and movie notables of their era. With Lonelyhearts, biographer Marion Meade, whose Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin earned accolades from the Washington Post Book World ("Wonderful") to the San Francisco Chronicle ("Like looking at a photo album while listening to a witty insider reminisce about the images"), restores West and McKenney to their rightful places in the rich cultural tapestry of interwar America.

My Review: It's a good story...hot young honey who's famous for being famous marries screwed-up weirdo writer of unsalable novels, they end up dead. Kinda like the Joe Orton story, only no one here's a real man.

Nathanael West comes out worst in this dual bio. He sounds like a self-loathing closet queer and anti-Semitic Jew, with a talent for cruelty and impeccable, phony manners. (Sure could write, though.) Eileen McKenney sounds like someone we all know today, the fifteen-minutes' wonder...Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin...who would've spent the rest of her life trying to cash in on her fleeting moment of celebrity.

Dreadful people, actually, ones I'd pay not to know, and I am double glad that I didn't buy this book. Meade does a solid job reporting the facts, and even goes so far as to avoid calling West a closet case...but really, ma'am, you reported as fact that the trog had gonorrhea of the ANUS, now does that not suggest something to you? Go Google the phrase "lucky Pierre" and stand back. Oh, and the means of infection that you posited in your book is anatomically impossible.

One of the bitterest ironies of the whole book is that Eileen's sister Ruth, the author of My Sister Eileen, became a very wealthy woman starting four days after Eileen's death...the Broadway show "My Sister Eileen" was a huge, huge hit, and spawned numerous revivals and reworkings, supporting its author all the rest of her life. I wonder if she'd've shared the gelt with Eileen. We'll never know, of course, but I suspect not. Ruth is not a likable character at all, per Meade, inclined to manic depressive episodes and a Communist True Believer (how tedious).

So why rate the book so highly? Because...these are REAL people, not airbrushed whitewashed celebrified people. They come across as, well, fascinating in their very, very, very flawed selves. Meade's made some dim corners of American celebrity life quite a lot brighter, and I suspect the likes of Kato Kaelin are busily dusting the corners of their lives.

I don't think I'll recommend this book to anyone not fascinated by Nathanael West. Really, it's just too far to go for someone just browsing around, and probably too tedious for anyone not already familiar with the time-period (1900-1940) in BOTH New York and Hollywood.

[Melanie H · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the fact that it's a double biography of two people whose lives cross for a very short period. However, with all the prime material and having read Meade's bio of Dorothy Parker, this book was surprisingly dull. Not to mention, way too many references to West's gonorrhea problems and lots of hints that he may be gay (posited by the Meade) that go completely unanswered.

[James Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lonleyhearts is a dual biography with an uneven gait. Nathanael West is recognized today as one of the most important novelists of the 1930s. One wonders why Meade would combine a biography of the two, even though they met, married, and in that way came to share Meade's narrative. McKenney was relatively unknown in her time and since, her claim to muted fame only as the subject of her sister's hit novel and play, My Sister Eileen. Not surprisingly McKenney's sections of the biography hold little interest and Meade's limpid prose style doesn't help. Even her sections about West add little to what we already know about him and his work.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting double biography of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney (The Eileen of My Sister Eileen ). They married in April of 1940 and were killed in a car wreck in December of the same year. By necessity the book is alternating biographies until the last few chapters. Ms. Meade generally does a good job of creating a sense of the times while also covering details of the lives of these two people. Reading about West's early years, you'd never expect him to become a respected writer. Maybe that can be a lesson to us all.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disjointed, unsatisfying biography of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney. The conceit of the book is interesting and the characters interesting enough for an exploration, but the story seems to weave into too many other characters and not focus enough on West or McKenney. As someone only familiar with West's work, it would have been helpful to have more explanation/ history of West and Ruth's work- other than short descriptions of the events as they happen. Overall, I wanted to like this more, but by the end of the book the car crash that ended their lives almost seemed like a post-script.

[Julai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cocktails are drunk, whores are screwed, twisteroos and madcap action culminate in a monster smash-up. It's the 20s, folks. (Through the early 40s, but who's counting?) And it's the story of famous-for-being-famous Eileen McKenney (My Sister Eileen--read the stage play for some pre-SATC bright-eyed, loose-moral-ed coming-to-the-city fanfare.) and her romance/marriage with that master of the poignantly weird, Nathanael West.

All in all, not much happens--but it's worth it to read just for the incidental characters (S.J. Perelman, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Parker.)

[Nette · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual and very entertaining double biography. Unusual because the two subjects don't meet until almost the very end (and then promptly die together); entertaining because of the wonderful depictions of New York and the Midwest and Paris and Hollywood in the 20s and 30s and all the odd characters who wander in and out. I'd love to see someone (Tim Burton? the Coen Bros?) make a movie based on this book

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up by chance in a used bookstore, and had trouble putting it down until it was finished! Meade does an excellent job tracing the life of West, an author I knew had written Miss Lonelyhearts but had no real awareness of as a person. McKenney is a more minor character for much of the book, but when she does appear, she holds her own in the narrative. There's a great cast of characters here, too - I especially enjoyed spending so much time with S.J. Perelman, one of my favorite writers. Meade isn't perfect - there are some really clunky sentences and rhetorical misfires here, and she can sometimes get a little carried away with the sound of her own writing (she also uses the word "retards" in 2010, which is a little iffy), but these moments are few and far between. In all, this was a fascinating window into one writer who was generally seen as a failure in his lifetime, a success after it, and now is a somewhat obscure literary oddity, and his wife, the fictionalized subject of her sister's writings who certainly deserved to come into her own in these pages. It has its flaws, but this book is a long overdue look at two really interesting lives, and I had a great time reading it!

[Aaron McQuiston · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weak three-star biography about Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney. With a menagerie of supporting characters in fiction and Hollywood, it seems as if this entire biography is not very informative on personal matters as much as professional ones. Sure I like to read about old Hollywood and the struggles of writers not making a penny, but the painting of West and McKenney are very abstract. There are references to West and his STDs and his piss-poor driving, but the struggles that are hinted at throughout are just hints.

I do like West's books, and this biography is almost the length of all four of them combined. West was ahead of his time, and to go away from this without wanting to reread them all is impossible. I also like to think that this explains what is wrong with Hollywood movies today; the big writers are not running out to California to do treatments and scripts because it is an easy paycheck. This is why there are more sequels and recycling now than ever before. In the end, the aspects of West's fiction and the Hollywood parts are worth the read. On a personal level, getting to know West in this biography does not happen.

[Jon]

As the word "screwball" in the subtitle might suggest, this is an irreverent look, focusing more on personal matters than artistic analysis, at West and his wife Eileen McKinney, who inspired her sister Ruth's best-selling book MY SISTER EILEEN and who died in the car crash that also took West's life. (He was driving.) Some of Meade's speculations are intriguing, as when she suggests that West's family must have helped him cheat his way to his college degree, and she makes some interesting points, as when she mentions the several other members of the Weinstein family who changed their name to West, as, of course, West himself did. Sometimes this book gets a bit tacky--I for one do not share Meade's obsession with West's bouts of venereal disease--but, while it doesn't replace Jay Martin's near-definitive West bio THE ART OF HIS LIFE, his admirers should enjoy it, and the information about McKinney--previously a little-noted figure, aside from her sister's fictionalized portrait--only makes it more interesting.

[Bookmarks Magazine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, critics were a bit perplexed by Meade's decision to write about West and McKenney; several didn't think the couple was interesting enough to appeal to modern readers. McKenney, in particular, was merely famous for being made famous (though we--and today's reality TV stars--are familiar with this concept). Others detected in the author's writing a distinct lack of empathy for her subjects and an irritating, overly familiar tone. On the positive side, Meade skillfully evokes the era, so for those interested in the Great Depression or Hollywood in the 1930s, this biography may be worth a peek. This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Carol]

NYTimes, The screwball world of Nathanial West and Eilleen mcKenney 1930's Hollywood

[Jill Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marion Meade's joint bio of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney (the "Eileen" in "My Sister Eileen") is a bio of two people who lived in interesting times, but somehow never seem to come alive in the book. Meade's book is well-written as she works with the material she has. But because both subjects lived abbreviated lives, dying at age 37 and 28 in a car crash in late 1940, there's not decades of material to look at and interpret. That is particularly true of McKenney, whose major claim to fame is that of the subject of her sister's books. She comes across as beautiful/bossy/tall/blonde/a Communist-sympathiser/a mother at an early age/an office worker, etc. She moved out to Los Angeles from New York (after having moved from Cleveland in her late teens), met Nathanael West, married him, and died early. I honestly don't get the feeling there was much "there" there.

West - born Nathan Weinstein - comes off better in Meade's bio. Born into a fairly wealthy immigrant Jewish family of builders, he spent his early life as the adored first (and only) son, dropping in and out of schools -both secondary and colleges - until a somewhat disreputable application (using another Nathan Weinstein's transcript) got him into Brown. He graduated and went to work in the family business. Most of his adult life was spent writing and he eventually published four novels, the two best known are "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust". He spent his 20's living in New York and Paris, hanging out with the literary geniuses of the time, and working as a hotel manager. He really comes off as sort of a cipher; he blends in to whatever group he's with. Sexually precocious, he contacted gonorrhea several times in his life. He had no real relationships with women - a couple of possible "engagements" - before he met and married Eileen McKenney. I'm actually a little confused about his attraction - and vise-versa -with McKenney.

West died before he could taste true literary fame. And before he could experience a true home life with wife and child. I wonder how different - and more interesting - McKenney and West's lives would have been if they had lived longer.

[Gina Dalfonzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well-researched and very interesting, but as others have said, the word "Screwball" is unfortunately hugely misleading. There was nothing screwball, in the traditional sense, about these people. I came to this story by way of my interest in "My Sister Eileen" and "Wonderful Town," and knew next to nothing about Nathanael West, so I didn't know I was in for such a grim ride. I don't mind reading about unpleasant and unhappy lives (hello, Bob Fosse!), but I like to know going in that they're unhappy and unpleasant.

Also, I wish the author had quoted at least a little from Ruth McKenney's writings. I know from experience that too much quoting can be costly, but surely a little bit would have been possible. From constantly hearing them described (I say "hearing" because I listened to the audiobook) but not actually hearing any of them, I feel we missed out on a lot. In a larger sense, I felt somehow that we knew these people only externally -- that we never really got inside their heads and found out what made them tick.

[Edward Champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marion Meade got a surprising amount of smack from the likes of Dwight Garner, arguably the highest perched misogynist in today's literary critical sphere. But I don't think it's entirely fair. Yes, Meade revisits much of the work already done by Jay Martin. Yes, this book is gossipy. But it does open up a window into the forgotten McKinney sisters, who may warrant at least half the attention given to the great Nathanael West. I read this for research on a forthcoming Modern Library essay.

[Jim Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and well researched biography

Marion Meade has written and interesting and well researched biography of writer Nathaniel West and his wife, Eileen. The book details the life of both of them until they come together and meet about a year and a half before their tragic deaths. Certainly worth reading for anyone interested in West’s writing or the film industry of the 1930’s.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but the West portions are more interesting than those of McKenney, and the concept of the book as a dual biography doesn't seem justified, though McKenney's life has interest, being the inspiration for "My Sister Eileen."

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Hollywood - they were crazy back then too

[Paulsoucek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a West addict, so I'd read one of his old gas bills…

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography on Nathanael West and his wife Eileen McKenney may on the surface seem to be an odd decision. After all, West and McKenney met in 1939 and were married a few months later and died in a car accident in December 1940. But Marion Meade does a good job of combining both biographies into one compelling read in Lonelyhearts: The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKeneny.

I didn’t know much about West before I began reading this book and I knew nothing about Eileen. I was drawn to the book because of the time period and the cast of supporting characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book did not disappoint.

One of the things that I found most amusing is that at the time of their death, McKenney was more famous than West. Now, I think you’d be hard pressed to find many that have ever heard of McKenney. I enjoyed the book, though Meade’s use of slang words of the time started to grate on me toward the end of the book. But it was interesting to see how many of the notable authors struggled – both professionally and personally. They weren’t always the nicest people, they had real flaws.

Full Review

[robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt like I was actually there with these people; the fine-tuned nature of this biography is almost unbelievable. It's told at a sort of remove; it's not dramatic or emotional, but we are in the character's heads, to an extent that has to be heavily fictionalized, and yet it feels completely natural. I was most of the way through the book before I even thought about the impossibility of knowing this much about what they were thinking.

it's a great bio.

I've never even read Miss Lonelyhearts, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be my cup of tea. I'd never heard of My Sister Eileen, or the Broadway spinoffs. But such is the author's affection and honesty in portraying these two people and their work/ the work that was built on them, I've come away wanting to read the books anyway, see the play.

Highly enjoyed. Bogged down just slightly because it does sometimes seem to plod; we're 3/4s of the way through the book at least before the two main characters even meet. But waiting for those two slowly converging lines to actually come together becomes part of the pleasure.

Glad I read it.

[Rebecca Makkai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore Marion Meade -- she's perfected the art of the wildly gossipy literary biography -- and when (ten pages in) I saw that this book had no five-star ratings on Goodreads, I was determined to write the first one and give you all what for.

So I finished it, and... damned if it isn't a four-star book. And it's not Meade's fault, really. These people's lives just aren't all that fascinating. (And she doesn't seem to have a lot of first-hand accounts or letters to work with, especially regarding the last months of their lives. When the two main characters finally, you know, meet each other.)

Meade is witty and precise, as always, but I preferred Nat and Eileen as peripheral characters in Dorothy Parker's story (which, told by Meade, is a hell of a five-star book).

[Lynne Culp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book in large part because I was raised on the writing of Ruth McKinney, sister of Eileen, so I had long been curious about West and Eileen. I found the story of Nathaniel's early life both touching and seriously intriguing. He was such an incompetent at so many things. Saying he was a late starter is such serious understatement. In essence, he and Eileen seemed like they were destined for the ash heap, yet she found him, and he found art. And because of one of his serious incompetencies---failure to learn to drive---they careened to early death.

[Emma Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great book focussing mainly on author Nathanael West in 1930s New York and LA - who remains a lovable character even though he was a duplicitous so and so who faked his exam results to get into college and plagiarised numerous sources in his books. He also hardly made any money from his novels throughout his lifetime (although he made quite a bit writing movie scripts). A wonderful uplifting tale of how authors need to believe in themselves even if they don't earn a brass farthing from their work!

[Gobasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Nathanael West's books and enjoyed reading about his life, his wife Eileen and the era they lived. Their lives are typical of writers during the time. Born in the mid-west or NYC, moving to and writing for Hollywood, joining or dealing with the Communist Party. If you're interested in that era this is an interesting read although Nat and Eileen are small players compared to F.S. Fitzgerald or Faulkner and reading their biographies may be a better introduction.

[Margaret Haerens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wanted to know where Nathanael West's twisted fiction came from--and now I have a better understanding of how his upbringing and family informed his worldview. And learning about the McKenney girls was a true pleasure. A very enjoyable read.

[John Uzzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quite a lot. Interesting characters, interesting times, a tragically short life.

[O.C.]

The only thing this book was successful in doing is make Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney sound like a coupla jerks. Irk.

[Francis J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think this is a hugely under-rated book, and Nathaniel West's book still hold up wonderfully,
and he was an amazing character.

[Steve Shilstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plenty of valuable and entertaining information, somewhat clumsily formatted.