The Vig, Paperback/Peter Alson

Peter Alson is having an early mid-life crisis: he's a 33-year-old Harvard grad who has suddenly run out of prospects. He can't seem to finish that novel; he and his girlfriend, Anna, have decided to call it quits (again); and worse, he's flat broke. So when he meets Michael, another Ivy Leaguer who's making a killing as a bookie, he does what any enterprising guy would do: he enters a life of crime, joining a bookmaking operation headed up by characters like Monkey and Steak Knife, where his real education begins. If you combined Basketball Diaries and A Fan's Notes with a dash of Damon Runyon, the result would be something like this-hilarious and heartbreaking-a book that has rightfully taken its place among the classics of down-and-out literature.