Novel
The Man with the Golden Arm
Nelson Algren · 1949
Synopsis
Francis Majcinek, known as Frankie Machine, back from the war with shrapnel in his belly and the morphine habit he was given against the pain, deals the cards in Zero Schwiefka's clandestine games around Division Street in Chicago. He has quick hands and dreams of being a drummer. His wife Sophie has not left her wheelchair since a car accident he caused while drunk, and holds him by guilt. His friend Sparrow Saltskin follows him everywhere, Nifty Louie sells him the drug. He goes through prison, and starts again.
Context
The book draws on notes taken over years in gambling back rooms, at police line-ups and among morphine addicts. Ernest Hemingway wrote to him in 1949: “Mr. Algren, boy, you are good”. In 1955, Otto Preminger made a film from it with Frank Sinatra, released without the Production Code seal; the Code was revised the following year and lifted the ban on drugs. Having fallen out with Preminger and badly paid, Algren sued him, a suit he abandoned for lack of money.
Who it is for
A long novel in slangy language and with black comedy. Translated into French by Boris Vian in 1956.
Prizes and reception
First winner of the National Book Award for fiction, presented in March 1950 by Eleanor Roosevelt.
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