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The Depression-era novel\\xa0Miss Lonelyhearts, by\\xa0Nathanael West, has been called "the purest expression of despair that American literature has produced, in any era."\\xa0As WNYC\'s Sara Fishko tells us in this\\xa0Fishko Files, 80 years after the author\'s death the book - about the descent into darkness of an advice columnist - still rings true.

Miss Lonelyhearts\\xa0is available to\\xa0order\\xa0online.

Jonathan Lethem\'s upcoming novel,\\xa0The Arrest, will be published this November. You can find more Lethem on West in\\xa0"The American Vicarious"\\xa0(The Believer, 2009).

For more on Lowell Liebermann, visit his\\xa0website.

Thanks to\\xa0Rex Doane\\xa0for lending his voice to our excerpts from\\xa0Miss Lonelyhearts.