The Man with the Golden Arm
by Nelson Algren
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Read in July, 2008
I can't believe I've put off reading Algren for so long. I had no idea what a brilliant writer he was. Not to mention, as a born and raised Chicagoan, 3rd generation Pole, and having lived in Ukrainian Village for a spell, I have a special appreciation for his descriptions of post WWII Chicago and his masterful use of the vernacular. The image of Piggy-O's bleeding gums turning the froth of his beer pink is one I can't erase from my mind and I love the quote about "the great, secret and spe...more
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Read in September, 1999
Nelson Algren wrote: ". . . I was going to write a war novel. But it turned out to be this Golden Arm thing. I mean, the war kind of slipped away, and those people with the hypos came along and that was it."
This suggests that Algren was overcome by his own creation, and I suppose that can happen sometimes, when you create such real gritty characters. This novel, The Man With the Golden Arm, is certainly gritty, and real, and a fascinating read. The characters literally jump out at you...more
This suggests that Algren was overcome by his own creation, and I suppose that can happen sometimes, when you create such real gritty characters. This novel, The Man With the Golden Arm, is certainly gritty, and real, and a fascinating read. The characters literally jump out at you...more
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Read in May, 2005
recommends it for:
anyone interested in the genre of naturalist literature and early beat generation lit
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM is the quintessential novel and the progenitor of the beat generation as well as the seminal work that bridges the naturalist period in literature to the beat generation. Frankie Machine, the self proclaimed "man with the golden arm" is the child of immigrants and WW2 vet to and anti-hero who returns with big dreams to be the next Gene Krupa. Frankie is not only an antihero but also a spouse in a very dysfunctional marriage to Sofia, the alcoholic housewif...more
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Read in May, 2008
I honestly don't know how the book could have been better. It reminded me of Winesburg, Ohio, only updated and grittier, without all of the propriety that sherwood bogged down his stories with. instead it moves like a jimmy cagney movie, dialogue exploding and the narration, the story, moving like liquid with amazing words of wisdom and deep beauty injected every so often, but not enough to impose the writer's will, not enough to be as forceful as the hustlers and crooks in the book. the book is...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Dana, Marilyn
This book, despite the title, is not about a major league baseball pitcher. It is a modern classic of american urban literature is one of the great Mike Royko's favorites. Algren's language replicates the life of a city, his city, from the gutters up. It's no mistake that Frankie Machine is a dealer by vocation and a drummer by avocation. It is a must read for anybody who has ever experienced the highs and lows that only come with urban dwelling.
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Lew by:
Book group
I remember reading this almost 40 years ago and coming away with a feeling that Algren captured something, perhaps something alive and poetic, about the lives of the marginal or lumpen that reinforced my sense of their humanity. Unfortunately the style, the hard-biting and often-times stilted dialogue and Polish-Chicago colloquialisms, has lost its freshness and left me less enamored of this american classic.
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Read in July, 2005
recommends it for:
fans of Henry Miller
A revealing account of the normalcy (the feelings, reality) of "criminal" life, that of junkies, drunks, and thieves in the Polish ghetto of Chicago (post WWII), through raw, humane, and compassionate characterization.
Main Character: Frankie Machine.
Related quote of Algren, "literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity."
Main Character: Frankie Machine.
Related quote of Algren, "literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity."
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I can't get past the first two pages....they are brillant. I keep reading them over and over and over and hoping some day I'll write like Algren.
In fact, I think I'm going to read them again. Now.
Update: Still the best two pages in literature! And the rest of it is pretty damn great too. Gritty, dark, realistic, too.
In fact, I think I'm going to read them again. Now.
Update: Still the best two pages in literature! And the rest of it is pretty damn great too. Gritty, dark, realistic, too.
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Read in November, 2006
This is one of the great works of Chicago fiction. It's set in Wicker Park, just after World War II, when it was a rough Polish neighborhood. It follows a card dealer named Frankie Machine-- the man with the golden arm-- and is by turns hilarious, absurd, haunting, tragic, thoughtful, and occassionally downright weird.
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Read for a Literature of Chicago class. Very bleak realist novel set in the Polish ghetto of 1940s Chicago. This is a novel about people near the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder just getting by, day to day. Made into a spectacularly crappy movie with Frank Sinatra
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Read in August, 2007
Absolutely stunning and heartbreaking. Algren's masterpiece and a must read for any fan of fiction that isn't afraid to dwell on the dark side for awhile. Frankie Machine may be the lead character, but the character that drives the story most is Chicago itself.
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Eye opening, brilliantly written, compelling story of a heroin addict in Chicago in the 1920's. The setting, detail and narrative made this one of the most memorable books I've read. A must if you want an overview of 20th century US authors.
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
tough broads, chicagoans, social activists.
An overall amazing book...but the mere act of reading it was so agonizing (the desperation of poverty and drug addiction is rarely light reading), that I will never read it again.
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Read in January, 1997
One of the most underappreciated authors (and titles) in America. Nelson Algren is the American Dostoyevsky and this book is his "Crime and Punishment".
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Frankie Machine, the dude with a junk habit and a gambling problem. If you like the downtrodden and ramshackle, Algren's your man.
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This is one I've had on my to read list for a long time. I love his short stories about boxing.
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Read in March, 2008
Slightly disapointed with this book, especially with all that I had heard about it.
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Its a great book... not my favorite but the writing and setting is terrific
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Everyone from Chicago (and beyond) should be required to read this book.
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gritty, chicago story. can't believe i've waited so long to read Algren
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