Frankie Machine
Algren is often "accused" of being a sentimentalist. So what? This has for decades been one of my favorite novels. Set in the gritty neighborhoods of 1940s Chicago, Algren portrays his characters fondly and comically, but feels for them enormously. As Algren said of the movie version of this book,"I wrote a book about drug addiction and [Preminger] turned it into a movie about Frank Sinatra". But read the book!
