"Cunning is what counts in life," says the seventeen-year-old narrator of the title piece of this exuberant collection of darkly comic tales that established Alan Sillitoe as one of England's best writers and gave a voice to an entire generation of angry young men. Full of hard-won wisdom and gritty authenticity, these stories of working-class blokes slugging it out with the system in 1950's Nottingham resonate with the lusty defiance of those whose will cannot be broken by oppressive poverty. There is the rebellious youth of "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner," whose running becomes a metaphor for his refusal to bow to societal rules in a delinquents' home. "On Saturday Afternoon" tells the story of a young man, fed up with life and angry at the world, who learns a life lesson when he stumbles across a neighbor attempting suicide. In "Noah's Ark," a boy who plays a con game at an amusement park gets taken for a spin himself. And "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller" is a rollicking tale of unbridled childhood fantasy and a moving tribute to the liberating powers of imagination. Poignant, often uproarious, and full of life, these nine stories provide stunning social comentary, a collection that stands as a modern British classic.