What do you think?
Rate this book
Dance Hall: A Novel of Sing Sing
INSPIRED BY TRUE STORIES OF DEPRESSION-ERA SING SING . A Brooklyn stickup artist, his taxi-dancing wife, a murderous newspaperman, a risk-taking warden, and a wife with a dark past converge in 1930s Sing Sing heading toward death, redemption-and Ebbets Field.
***
Award-winning author David Pietrusza's Dance A Novel of Sing Sing unveils a grand and riveting tale of a violent and desperate era, unforgettably narrated in a gripping, often wry, fashion—recorded in tears and punctuated in—rarely innocent—blood.
Dance Hall dramatically transports readers to a seedy, volatile 1930s underworld where love and honor and redemption jostle for mere survival with greed and lust and betrayal.
Dance Hall unveils the story of a down-on-his-luck Brooklyn stickup artist, his taxi-dancing Filipina spouse, a murderous newspaperman, a risk-taking warden, and a wife with a dark past converging in Sing Sing, destined for love, death, forgiveness, redemption—and Ebbets Field.
Dance Hall is so much more than just a heart-pounding crime it’s also an intricate, finely-crafted interweaving of unforgettable a young parish priest gone wrong and then right again, a brutal Bowery killer with escape on his mind, a con man with the vestige of a conscience, a thuggish Garment District goon with a devout sister, a tell-all Broadway gossip columnist with the power to make or break anyone, a rat of an accomplice, a once-disgraced private detective who now surprisingly elevates a principle above a paycheck.
Dive into Dance Hall and you live and breathe life inside cold and desperate prison cells; sweaty and often violent Brooklyn dime-a-dance dance halls; crowded tenements, back-alley speakeasies where anything and anybody was for sale; the elegant bastions of the rich and powerful; and of a waiting area for Sing Sing’s “Death Row” called “The Dance Hall”—all the while returning you to Depression days when hope reigned supreme.
Because hope was all you had .
***
"BANG!!! A shot sundered whatever peace resided on Amsterdam Avenue--BANG!!!--another. Foxy Renard felt his left arm sting. He knew he'd been hit but didn't know whether the bullet had grazed him or hit bone, how much he was bleeding or even whether or not he bled at all. He didn't have much experience being a clay pigeon. Maybe, he thought, it was just a flesh wound, like in the movies or the radio or the detective magazines or the dime novels. Nothing to really worry about, except there never is such thing as just a flesh wound when it's your flesh"
***
"Mrs. Larrabee across the hall took Nick [Strecker] in--providing him with a roof over his head but not much more. It might be said that Mr. Larrabee was a mean drunk, but it was exceedingly difficult to ascertain if he was any meaner drunk than sober for he never seemed sober at all. For safety and sanity, young Nick wandered the streets. He hired out for errands of dubious legality. He rolled drunks in stinking, rat-filled alleyways--there was, after all, no shortage of inebriates on Ludlow Street. He pinched what he could from pushcart vendors and shopkeepers and ran like hell. He was an Artful Dodger without a Fagin, on the road to becoming a Bill Sikes without a Nancy."
***
Award-winning author David Pietrusza's Dance A Novel of Sing Sing unveils a grand and riveting tale of a violent and desperate era, unforgettably narrated in a gripping, often wry, fashion—recorded in tears and punctuated in—rarely innocent—blood.
Dance Hall dramatically transports readers to a seedy, volatile 1930s underworld where love and honor and redemption jostle for mere survival with greed and lust and betrayal.
Dance Hall unveils the story of a down-on-his-luck Brooklyn stickup artist, his taxi-dancing Filipina spouse, a murderous newspaperman, a risk-taking warden, and a wife with a dark past converging in Sing Sing, destined for love, death, forgiveness, redemption—and Ebbets Field.
Dance Hall is so much more than just a heart-pounding crime it’s also an intricate, finely-crafted interweaving of unforgettable a young parish priest gone wrong and then right again, a brutal Bowery killer with escape on his mind, a con man with the vestige of a conscience, a thuggish Garment District goon with a devout sister, a tell-all Broadway gossip columnist with the power to make or break anyone, a rat of an accomplice, a once-disgraced private detective who now surprisingly elevates a principle above a paycheck.
Dive into Dance Hall and you live and breathe life inside cold and desperate prison cells; sweaty and often violent Brooklyn dime-a-dance dance halls; crowded tenements, back-alley speakeasies where anything and anybody was for sale; the elegant bastions of the rich and powerful; and of a waiting area for Sing Sing’s “Death Row” called “The Dance Hall”—all the while returning you to Depression days when hope reigned supreme.
Because hope was all you had .
***
"BANG!!! A shot sundered whatever peace resided on Amsterdam Avenue--BANG!!!--another. Foxy Renard felt his left arm sting. He knew he'd been hit but didn't know whether the bullet had grazed him or hit bone, how much he was bleeding or even whether or not he bled at all. He didn't have much experience being a clay pigeon. Maybe, he thought, it was just a flesh wound, like in the movies or the radio or the detective magazines or the dime novels. Nothing to really worry about, except there never is such thing as just a flesh wound when it's your flesh"
***
"Mrs. Larrabee across the hall took Nick [Strecker] in--providing him with a roof over his head but not much more. It might be said that Mr. Larrabee was a mean drunk, but it was exceedingly difficult to ascertain if he was any meaner drunk than sober for he never seemed sober at all. For safety and sanity, young Nick wandered the streets. He hired out for errands of dubious legality. He rolled drunks in stinking, rat-filled alleyways--there was, after all, no shortage of inebriates on Ludlow Street. He pinched what he could from pushcart vendors and shopkeepers and ran like hell. He was an Artful Dodger without a Fagin, on the road to becoming a Bill Sikes without a Nancy."
302 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 14, 2014
8 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
David Pietrusza
36 books31 followersDavid Pietrusza’s books include 1920: The Year of Six Presidents; Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series; 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America's Role in the World; 1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies; and 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR—Two Tales of Politics, Betrayal, and Unlikely Destiny. Rothstein was a finalist for an Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category, and 1920 was honored by Kirkus Reviews as among their "Books of the Year." Pietrusza has appeared on Good Morning America, Morning Joe, The Voice of America, The History Channel, ESPN, NPR, AMC, and C-SPAN. He has spoken at The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, The National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the Harry S Truman library and Museum, and various universities and festivals. He lives in Scotia, New York. Visit davidpietrusza.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.