The Man with the Golden Arm Audiobook By Nelson Algren cover art

The Man with the Golden Arm

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Man with the Golden Arm

By: Nelson Algren
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.46

Buy for $21.46

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel
A novel of rare genius, The Man with the Golden Arm recounts the life of Francis Majcinek, "Frankie Machine," who returned from World War II with a Purple Heart and a morphine habit. He relies on morphine to numb the pain of a war injury and the guilt he feels for a drunken spree that put his wife Sophie in a wheelchair. Frankie, a card-dealer in an illicit poker game, has now come back to Chicago's West Side after detoxing in the federal prison for narcotics addicts, being exposed again to all the pressures, anxieties, and temptations that put him there in the first place.©1976 Nelson Algren (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Urban Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"A thriller that packs more of a punch than pulp fiction and more grittiness than either Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett." ( Scotsman)
"A true novelist's triumph." ( Time)
All stars
Most relevant  
Excellent, bleak tale of a West Sider after the war. Truly the Native Son or Lonigan of the Polish community. My only complaint was the way the reader pronounced Paulina, which I understand non-Chicagoans not knowing. But it's strange to hear.

Great Book, good performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A forgotten tragic masterpiece recommended by Bukowsky. Jazz as prose. The story of Frankie the Machine is one that if more people had read, they might have understood what was to come in the 50s, 60s, and 70s in America. Beneath this stylized period piece is a universal truth about how society breaks men and then tosses them aside.

Beneath this stylized period piece is a universal truth

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narrator expertly employs several distinctive voices to bring to life the blues-drenched story of a doomed American young man in a wretched Chicago neighborhood post-World War II.

Terrific narration of a true American classic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The most vivid book I have ever listen to on audible. I could see every backroom dark corner this novel took place in. Every character had a face and voice that I could recognize. This is a must listen.

Amazingly descriptive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tangible tale of the human condition. Listening it reminded me of the best AM radio dramas of 40 plus years ago.

Good Story, Well Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great performance of a wonderful book, but I was snapped out of its trance when the narrator mispronounced Paulina. Minor quibble, you should check it out!

...but it's "paul-I-nah"!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked this book a true masterpiece by Mr. Algren. I think anyone would love his morally vague characters.

a forgotten masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
really gritty and old noir style i could only picture black and white in my head.

if ya get a hunch, bet a bunch! i loved the one liners

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The dialogue/prose is terribly dated and distracting. To redeem such a bleak story, there needed to be at least one genuinely likable character. It doesn't seem to know what it's about; I didn't get it.

Gloomy, unengaging

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.