Kersh, Gerald - Night and the City (1938)

Cover of the 1956 Dell map-back edition. From Flickr. Go there to enlarge.

From the 1956 Dell map-back edition:

The wicked half-world of streetwalkers, small-time operators, wrestlers, and night-club hostesses and their touching, often tragic, ups and downs comes to life in this sometimes shocking and always fascinating novel of the little-known goings-on under the glitter of big city life after dark.

Night and the City is an odyssey of evil centered about Harry Fabian, one of the most loathsome creatures of the underworld. Born in a Cockney slum, bred in the gutters, Harry lives in a fantastic dream world fired by American gangster films. He masquerades as an American song writer and fears to admit, even to himself, how low he stoops to earn his living as he hurries through the night driven by the evil in his soul.

Tangled with the sordid life of Harry Fabian are the questionable fates of his sometimes colorful neighbors of the night with their individual fears, desires, and passions heightened by the conflicting play of personality upon personality. There is beautiful, weak Zoe, Harry's streetwalking wife; unwashed Vi, frankly uninhibited bird of the night; timid, misery-bowed Arnold Simpson so obviously out of place in his present society; buglike Figler, out of place in any society; suave Nosseross, man of ice except where his girl-wife, Mary, is concerned; fat, senile, pathetic Ali the Terrible Turk; and Helen and Adam the down-and-out lovers who step into the mire of the petty underworld "Just until we get back on our feet" only to discover that the night has tentacles from which it is difficult to break loose.

Not for the strait-laced or squeamish, this novel is strong fare, and for those willing to taste it, it is a treat or rare substance.