num_pages: 368
description: A novel of rare genius, The Man with the Golden Arm describes the dissolution of a card-dealing WWII veteran named Frankie Machine, caught in the act of slowly cutting his own heart into wafer-thin slices. For Frankie, a murder committed may be the least of his problems.The literary critic Malcolm Cowley called The Man with the Golden Arm "Algren's defense of the individual," while Carl Sandburg wrote of its "strange midnight dignity." A literary tour de force, here is a novel unlike any other, one in which drug addiction, poverty, and human failure somehow suggest a defense of human dignity and a reason for hope.
language: English
title: The Man with the Golden Arm
titlecomplete: The Man with the Golden Arm
characters: Molly Novotny, Frankie Majcinek, Sparrow Saltskin, Sophie Majcinek, Niftie Louie Fomorowsky
genres: Fiction, American, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Noir, Literature, Classics, Novels, 20th Century, Crime
ratings_count: 2966
places: Chicago, Illinois
awards: awardedAt: -631123200000
name: National Book Award
category: Fiction
publisher: Seven Stories Press