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

Miss Lonelyhearts is available to order online.

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

For more on Lowell Liebermann, visit his website.

Thanks to Rex Doane for lending his voice to our excerpts from Miss Lonelyhearts.