Nelson Algren
Paperback | Pages: 464 pages Rating: 3.89 | 2535 Users | 236 Reviews
Be Specific About Books As The Man With the Golden Arm
| Original Title: | The Man with the Golden Arm |
| ISBN: | 1583220089 (ISBN13: 9781583220085) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Frankie Majcinek, Sophie Majcinek, Sparrow Saltskin, Niftie Louie Fomorowsky, Molly Novotny |
| Setting: | Chicago, Illinois,1948(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award for Fiction (1950) |
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Nelson Algren's devastating of that savage, subterranean world go gamblers, junkies, alcoholics, prostitutes, thieves, and degenerates remains unsurpassed as an authentic portrait of human depravity.Only a master like Algren could create such a passionate and dramatic novel of so daring a theme as a man's struggle against dope addiction.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, the bestseller on which Otto Preminger based his magnificent motion picture, is "a true novelist's triumph." -TIME
Describe Based On Books The Man With the Golden Arm
| Title | : | The Man With the Golden Arm |
| Author | : | Nelson Algren |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | 50th Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 464 pages |
| Published | : | November 9th 1999 by Seven Stories Press (first published 1949) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics |
Rating Based On Books The Man With the Golden Arm
Ratings: 3.89 From 2535 Users | 236 ReviewsRate Based On Books The Man With the Golden Arm
I grew up in Chicago in the neighborhood Algren writes about and at the same time he was writing about it ... so from the beginning I was at odds with this book. This isn't the neighborhood that I grew up in! But ... after finishing the book and thinking about some of my Polish relatives who either owned taverns or spent a lot of time in taverns I have to reluctantly admit that Algren is portraying a part of Chicago that I was simply too young to know about.Some reviewers have referred to this4 stars because I recognize its an important piece of American and specifically Chicago lit and Algren is a great writer. But it definitely is not an easy read and you have to really concentrate on it at points to understand whats going on. Morphine addiction sounds like a terrible time
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book.First off, the writing. Holy crap can Algren write. The language is lush and gorgeous. His ability to paint vivid character portraits is among the best I've ever read. Analogy and metaphor are this cat's playground. While I'm not much for the world of literature, it's easy to see why this won the National Book Award in 1950.On the other hand, though, is the story itself. Goddamn depressing. Wait, I should use all-caps: IT IS GODDAMNED DEPRESSING.
There's been a lot of talk about Algren lately due to a new biography, so I thought I'd finally get around to reading this, since it's been on my shelf forever. I guess there were a lot of guys writing these gritty urban stories after they came back from WWII.It took me about 50 pages to get into the rhythm of his prose -- so much mook-speak. And so many extended acrimonious conversations going nowhere. I felt sorriest for Frankie's wife, but I could see how she goaded him into wanting to leave
The old American myth is that if we work hard and have a properly optimistic attitude, the world is at our fingertips. Life is good and good for you in God's Country. This is bullshit.And Nelson Algren, at the height of the McCarthy Era, had the courage to say so. His are the stories of all the American dreamers who lost out. While the story drags a bit at time, it's still compelling. Algren breaks up the storyline with long, poetically gorgeous ruminations about sociology, psychology, and what
I'm ashamed to say I only got halfway through this. It felt so claustrophobic that I threw it to the floor and ran outside in my underwear. To Algren's fans everywhere I offer sincere regrets. I admired what I read but I didn't want to read anymore.
Listen up, those of you who loved Hard Rain Falling. Carpenter's good, but as far as I can tell from just reading one book from each of them, Carpenter owes just about everything he's got to Algren.The Man With the Golden Arm follows Frankie Machine, morphine-addict and sometime card-dealer, on a slow path of dissolution--my favorite kind of path. It's similar to Infinite Jest in its sober and sobering study of addiction and the cycle of poverty, and I have a hard time believing Sergeant
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