{"product_id":"a-cool-million-the-dream-life-of-balso-snell","title":"A Cool Million \u0026 The Dream Life of Balso Snell","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis single-volume compilation brings together two early, fiercely avant-garde satirical novellas that showcase the author's sharp deconstruction of American optimism and Western literary traditions. The collection opens with The Dream Life of Balso Snell, a surreal, Dadaist journey that follows the protagonist as he travels inside the bowels of the Trojan Horse, encountering a bizarre cast of eccentric writers, pathologically insecure intellectuals, and tragicomic figures who satirize artistic pretension and religious dogma. This is paired with A Cool Million, a biting, dark parody of Horatio Alger’s classic \"rags-to-riches\" success stories. The narrative tracks the relentless misfortunes of Lemuel Pitkin, a gullible and wholesome young man who sets out to make his fortune but instead becomes systematically dismantled—losing his teeth, eyes, limbs, and freedom to a corrupt capitalist machine—before being cynically martyred by a fascist political movement. Together, these short masterpieces serve as an objective archive of early twentieth-century American absurdism, using visceral black humor to expose the hollow core of national myths.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nathanael West","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49530142982394,"sku":"A6\/23\/07052026","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0635\/3387\/5450\/files\/IMG_2461_8bb32e7c-41ef-46ff-bf58-7e2fa07d58c8.jpg?v=1783265228","url":"https:\/\/flippedpages.com\/products\/a-cool-million-the-dream-life-of-balso-snell","provider":"Flipped Pages","version":"1.0","type":"link"}