The marathon dance craze flourished during the 1930s, offering a brief escape from the harsh realities of the Great Depression. But beneath the glitz and glamour lay a dark and violent competition, unknown to most ballrooms. This is the world that Horace McCoy's classic American novel plunges into, capturing the desperation and determination of its participants.

McCoy's narrative is both a gripping tale of endurance and a poignant commentary on the era. The novel meticulously documents the physical and emotional toll on the dancers, making it a powerful read that resonates with the struggles of the time.

Nelson Algren's most powerful and enduring work, The Man with the Golden Arm, offers a devastating portrait of the savage, subterranean world of gamblers, junkies, alcoholics, prostitutes, thieves, and degenerates. It remains unsurpassed as an authentic depiction of human depravity.

Only a master like Algren could create such a passionate and dramatic novel on the daring theme of a man's struggle against dope addiction. The novel tells the story of Frankie Machine, a card-dealing WWII veteran, who is caught in the act of slowly cutting his own heart into wafer-thin slices. For Frankie, a murder committed may be the least of his problems.

The literary critic Malcolm Cowley called it "Algren's defense of the individual," while Carl Sandburg wrote of its "strange midnight dignity." This literary tour de force suggests a defense of human dignity and a reason for hope, despite the challenges of drug addiction, poverty, and human failure.