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A review by kingds
The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren, Daniel Simon, Kurt Vonnegut, Studs Terkel, William J. Savage Jr.
5.0
One of the bleakest books I've ever read, but also (in parts) one of the funniest, and most beautiful. Sort of like a cynical/realist version of "Cannery Row." Nelson Algren seemed to treat this novel as an exercise in generating sympathy for generally unsympathetic characters. Most of the characters are thieves and grifters, with very few redeeming qualities to share between them, but by the end of the novel I was rooting for them all to have a happy ending ().
I wanted to read this book because I live close to the area of Chicago where it's set, and I thought it would be interesting to get a picture of what that part of Chicago was like in the seedy post-war days. It certainly was interesting, even if it didn't make me want to take a time machine back to Division Street in the late forties (little too much squalor for this guy).
Spoiler
They don't, at all.I wanted to read this book because I live close to the area of Chicago where it's set, and I thought it would be interesting to get a picture of what that part of Chicago was like in the seedy post-war days. It certainly was interesting, even if it didn't make me want to take a time machine back to Division Street in the late forties (little too much squalor for this guy).