456. The Man With the Golden Arm

The Man With the Golden Arm

Nelson Algren
1949
Around 350 pages

NOTE: I noticed my comments haven't been working, but I believe I fixed the issue.  Sorry if you have been trying to comment, feel free to go extra hard on me as part of my repentance.

Crossover time! The film adaptation of this novel is on the 1001 Movies list, which is a dragon I've already slayed. The book is very different than the movie, but I didn't think it was much of an improvement.

Francis Majcinek is a drummer known as Frankie Machine. I also have a consonant-happy Polish last name, but nobody has ever given me a cool nickname to make it easier. Well, there's still time. Frankie develops a morphine addiction after being treated for a shrapnel injury during World War II. His shrewish wife Zosh keeps him in check, using guilt and her possibly faked paralysis. He tries to maintain control of his addiction, while starting an affair with his childhood friend Molly.

The female characters are the main reason I don't like this story. You have Zosh, who is a one-dimensional nightmare, and Molly, who is treated as Frankie's chance of salvation. I think they could have been handled with more depth.

Algren does a better job depicting addiction than the film version does, and I liked this ending more. But not a must read (or watch) in my opinion.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Won the National Book Award in 1950.

Ernest Hemingway wrote of this book, "Into a world of letters where we have the fading Faulkner and that overgrown Li'l Abner Thomas Wolfe casts a shorter shadow every day, Algren comes like a corvette or even a big destroyer... Algren can hit with both hands and move around and he will kill you if you are not awfully careful... Mr. Algren, boy, you are good."

When asked to pose below the film's marquee, Algren is reported to have said "What does that movie have to do with me?" He also commented about the movie that "Sinatra shook heroin like he shook a summer cold." That man could read.

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