Mrs. Layden
A wealthy regular spectator fascinated by the dancers.
To follow the marathon's human drama.
The book
At a glance
- a paying spectator
- A wealthy regular spectator fascinated by the dancers.
- To follow the marathon's human drama.
- A stray bullet kills her and helps force the contest to close.
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeMrs. Layden is a paying spectator. A wealthy regular spectator fascinated by the dancers.
The character wants to follow the marathon's human drama.. That desire is tested by a contest whose rules reward spectacle rather than care.
A stray bullet kills her and helps force the contest to close. The outcome clarifies what the marathon takes from people and what its organizers can turn into entertainment.
How the book draws them
- Rolea paying spectator
- PressureA wealthy regular spectator fascinated by the dancers.
- GoalTo follow the marathon's human drama.
- Story turnA stray bullet kills her and helps force the contest to close.
A stray bullet kills her and helps force the contest to close.
If you like They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
If you like Horace McCoy
Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.
Charles Bukowski
American poet and novelist of Los Angeles rooming houses, racetracks and the post office, who quit his job to write when a publisher offered him a hundred dollars a month. He came to Paris once, in September 1978, drank his way through a live television book programme and walked off the set — and French television has been replaying it ever since.
View author
Henry Miller
The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.
View author
Sherwood Anderson
The Ohio ad man who walked out of his office, wrote Winesburg, Ohio, and sent the young Hemingway to Paris with letters of introduction.
View author