James Ross’ country noir, They Don’t Dance Much, published in 1940, takes place in and around Corinth, North Carolina, around the year 1939. Prohibition has ended, the Great Depression is in full swing, and many people, including the book’s protagonist, Jack McDonald, are down on their luck.

McDonald is a failed farmer in a mostly poor Southern town. His crops won’t grow, the bank has a lien on his land, he can’t pay the undertaker who just buried his mother, his chickens won’t lay, and even his cow is mortgaged. Drifting around town one day, looking for a drink, he visits Smut Milligan’s gas station to spend one of his last dollars on a pint of bootleg corn liquor.