Admired by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, and Dashiell Hammett, and hailed as one of the Best 100 English-language novels byLos Angeles has been the subject of, and setting for, many fine novels yetWest'sNathanael West's humor is of course not at the expense of the victim. It is a horselaugh at a world that is too ugly and bitter to be dealt with in any other way.