High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Man with the Golden Arm is a novel by Nelson Algren that details the trials and hardships of illicit card dealer "Frankie Machine", along with an assortment of colorful characters, on Chicago`s Near Northwest Side. A veteran of World War II, Frankie struggles to stabilize his personal life while trying to make ends meet and fight a growing addiction to morphine. Much of the story takes place during the immediate postwar period along Division Street and Milwaukee Avenue in the old Polish Downtown.