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Title: The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren ISBN: 1-58322-008-9 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 05 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: this is one book that takes you all the way there
Comment: I don't know how I missed Algren, but I had never heard of him before I picked this book up. I only bought it because of the title. The darker days of my own youth have made me skeptical of books dealing with alcoholism and addiction. They never seem to get it right. This one nails it, seemingly without effort. Unlike other books of the genre, this one does not romanticize the ugliness it deals with. Frankie Machine's life is a tour through poverty, loveless marriages, addictions and hopelessness. It is not exaggerated. This is what it's really like. Algren's realism and intelligence make this one of the finest novels I've ever read. The details are so vivid and accurate that one has to wonder how many demons Algren shares with his characters. The Man With The Golden Arm is simply fiction mirroring life. It presents a side of life that many of its readers will never experience first-hand. Of that, you will be grateful. A combination of poor choices, bad luck, and lack of opportunity has overwhelmed the characters so completely that most of them don't know that they are already dead. I am a writer...this is one of those books that will always keep me humble. For most, their greatest achievement of words will never come close to to Algren's harrowing tome. Do not read this while distracted. It requires your full attention. It's that rich, that brilliant. This is not just a book about morphine, booze & the ghetto....it is a book of suffering, pain, betrayal, neglect & spite. Mr. Algren has been graceful enough to supply the compassion that most of characters seem to lack.
Rating: 5
Summary: extraordinary
Comment: The Man with the Golden Arm is a beautifully complex tale that explores the experiences of the poor and powerless in mid-century Chicago. Frankie Machine returns to his old neighborhood after a stint in prison, having kicked a heroin habit and dreaming of becoming a drummer in a nightclub band. But all the old opportunities and constraints that worked on him before -- pressing need for cash, his skill as a card dealer, guilt over his wife's disability, temptations of drugs and petty crime -- kick in again, and he is inexorably pulled back into old habits and behaviors he had hoped to resist. Some call this a 'dark' tale, but it isn't really: yes, Frankie and friends are stuck in precarious, marginalized circumstances without real power to change, yet their lives unfold in ways that entertain contradictions that people of all circumstances face, between hope and despair, struggle and defeat, trust and betrayal, compulsion and choice. Algren is a uniquely gifted writer; he takes you inside characters' heads to see their thoughts and dreams (often off-kilter), and their humanity feels real and immediate. This is the edition of the book to buy -- it has wonderful essays about Algren and his work.
Rating: 5
Summary: No Work and No Play
Comment: I think this is one of the best novels ever written. People who say Algren romanticizes the poor have clearly not read the book properly, all he does is say they are human just as you. But describing them as low-lifes like some reviewers did, just shows that Algren's message did not come across. This book is about love for humanity. And that is ALL humanity, not just the part that's nicely educated and has a good job and doesn't rob you at night. One reviewer said that Frankie Machine should of just quit taking drugs and sought himself a nice job and everything would of turned out fine. How? Would Frankie be loved then, would his crippled wife be able to walk, would there be no loneliness and desperation. would it stop raining? Would it stop the El from going round and round? I'm sick and tired of people romanticizin' the rich.
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Title: A Walk on the Wild Side : A Novel by Nelson Algren ISBN: 0374525323 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 24 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Neon Wilderness by Nelson Algren, Tom Carson, Studs Terkel ISBN: 1583225501 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren, Kurt, Jr. Vonnegut, Jr., Kurt Vonnegut ISBN: 1583222790 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 09 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Nonconformity: Writing on Writing by Nelson Algren ISBN: 1888363622 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: December, 1997 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren, Studs Terkel, David Schmittgens, Bill Savage ISBN: 0226013855 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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