They Shoot Horses Don't They?, by
Horace McCoy, was published in
1935 during the waning years of
the Great Depression, and was exceedingly popular during the pre-
World War II era. Structured around the story of a
desperate couple hoping to win a substantial
cash prize for enduring a
marathon dance contest amidst strong
competition, the narrative is textually interwoven with a
judge's
sentencing of the
protagonist after a
trial which is not directly included in the story.
Usually considered a work of the American Noir genre, the novel has fared somewhat poorly with age, although the movie which was ultimately made from it did quite well.