National Book Award Winner
The Man with the Golden Arm
by Nelson Algren
Summary
The story follows Frankie Machine, a dealer in illegal card games and a struggling morphine addict in the slums of Chicago. It is a gritty, realistic portrayal of the urban underclass and the cycle of addiction.
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Historical Context & Significance
The inaugural winner of the NBA for Fiction; Algren was famously a close friend and lover of Simone de Beauvoir, who dedicated her book 'The Mandarins' to him.