Timothy W. Ryback’s choice to make his new book... an aggressively specific chronicle of a single year, 1932, seems a wise, even an inspired one ... Ryback’s gift for detail joins with a nice feeling for the black comedy of the period.
Ryback offers a discerning play-by-play of this "devils’ dance" and reminds readers of the many missed opportunities for individuals to have chosen differently. He makes no reference to the present, but its relevance is obvious.