Tim Madden, an unsuccessful writer with a penchant for nicotine, alcohol and blondes with money, struggles towards consciousness twenty-four days and nights after his wide has left him. He has a bad case of alcohol amnesia, a fresh and throbbing tattoo and a car drenched in blood. Just to make his hangover complete, Provincetowns Chief of Police would like a quiet word...So begins Maddens disquieting journey into the dark recesses of Americas psyche. TOUGH GUYS DONT DANCE is Norman Mailer at his tough, raw and uncompromising best. And Madden s tormented efforts to reconstruct the missing hours of a terrible evening turn, inevitably into fragments of the American Nightmare.