Miss Lonelyhearts

Ms. Lonelyhearts is Nathanael West's first great novel. In the story Ms. Lonelyhearts is a newspaper columist writing an advice colum viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As Ms. Lonelyhearts reads the letters from the desperate writers he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep deppression.

Ms. Lonelyhearts tries obsesive religion as a way out but only comes out more confused. Ms. Lonelyhearts then corresponds with a reader married to a "cripple" unhappily. Ms. Lonelyhearts has a mini affair with the women. In the last scene he confronts the cripple, running at him, trying for salvation. The cripple who thinks Ms. Lonelyhearts is attacking him pulls out a gun and shoots Ms. Lonelyhearts.