Nelson Algren reads from his most famous novel, The Man With the Golden Arm, about the decline and fall of a drug dealer and card sharp. Bernard Malamud’s devastating selection from The Magic Barrel portrays poor, embittered old Jews who achieve a moment of grace after fierce antagonism. In John Updike’s story from Pigeon Feathers, a seminary student working as a lifeguard draws a witty and lyrical contrast between saving souls and bodies. And James Jones’s account of World War II battle in Japan in The Thin Red Line shows young soldiers at their most heroic and perilous moments.