- Paperback: 431 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprinted edition edition (23 Jun 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0684831546
- ISBN-13: 978-0684831541
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.5 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,119,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Michael Dirda "The Washington Post Book World" You would think Proulx would have the simple decency to make her third novel merely so-so, if only to let someone else grab a little limelight. No such luck...She now seems to know everything about writing. And a fair amount about life, too.
Product Description
Rarely has a literary novel so captured the hearts and minds of readers across America and the world as E. Annie Proulx's "The Shipping News, " winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Now we have Proulx's new novel, "Accordion Crimes, " a masterpiece of storytelling that spans a century and a continent.
"Accordion Crimes" opens in 1890 in Sicily as an accordion maker completes his finest instrument and dreams of owning a music store in America. He and his eleven-year-old son, carrying little more than the accordion, voyage to the teeming, violent port of New Orleans. Within a year, the accordion maker is murdered by an anti-Italian lynching mob, but his instrument carries Proulx's story as it falls into the hands of various immigrants who carry it from Iowa to Texas, from Maine to Louisiana, looking for a decent life. The music is their last link with the past -- voice for their fantasies, sorrows and exuberance -- but it, too, is forced to change.
Proulx's prodigious knowledge, heartbreaking characters and daring storytelling unite the sections of "Accordion Crimes" -- a stunning novel, exhilarating in its scope and originality.
"Accordion Crimes" opens in 1890 in Sicily as an accordion maker completes his finest instrument and dreams of owning a music store in America. He and his eleven-year-old son, carrying little more than the accordion, voyage to the teeming, violent port of New Orleans. Within a year, the accordion maker is murdered by an anti-Italian lynching mob, but his instrument carries Proulx's story as it falls into the hands of various immigrants who carry it from Iowa to Texas, from Maine to Louisiana, looking for a decent life. The music is their last link with the past -- voice for their fantasies, sorrows and exuberance -- but it, too, is forced to change.
Proulx's prodigious knowledge, heartbreaking characters and daring storytelling unite the sections of "Accordion Crimes" -- a stunning novel, exhilarating in its scope and originality.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book - in fact I can't remember having read a better one for years.
On the surface, it's the story of an accordian, from it's manufacture by the first owner and then through the lives of consequent owners. As a musician I related to the perceptive descriptions of the players of the instrument and all the other characters - of which there are many!
But the theme is of immigration to the United States, and the often tough lives of those who moved there from diverse countries and cultures. The accordian is seen as an old-fashioned instrument, much like the traditions and cultures the immigrants have left behind, and the pressure (for most characters in the book) is to conform, give up tradition, their old languages and their old music and become 'true' Americans.
On the surface, it's the story of an accordian, from it's manufacture by the first owner and then through the lives of consequent owners. As a musician I related to the perceptive descriptions of the players of the instrument and all the other characters - of which there are many!
But the theme is of immigration to the United States, and the often tough lives of those who moved there from diverse countries and cultures. The accordian is seen as an old-fashioned instrument, much like the traditions and cultures the immigrants have left behind, and the pressure (for most characters in the book) is to conform, give up tradition, their old languages and their old music and become 'true' Americans.
Darkly humourous, funny yet tragic, this deep novel takes us through the 20th century (never too specific on date) with great historical detail and reads like a linked collection of short stories. I recommend it.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A damn fine book in the tradition familiar to Proulx's readers. Overall perhaps not as complete an achievement as "The Shipping News" but sections of the book read as well as anything she has written prviously. The story follows the progress of a green accordion as it passes through the hands of owners from a variety of national origins and classes. In this way Proulx tells the story of the development of the United States and its immigrants from the 19th centuary to neasr the present day. The accordion interweaves the stories of the characters and provides a thread to the narative. A book of haunting images.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel is certainly not an easy read, but I think those who shrug it off as depressing and dreary are really missing a great deal of the meaining it has to offer. It may be true that many of the characters come to unpleasant ends, but they often also achieve some measure of happiness along the way. Proulx's message seems to be one of niether hope nor dispair, but rather of life-affirmation; for life is made of equal measures of both, and these characters, who experience so much of both, are vibrantly, powerfully alive. The accordian (which is a brilliant metaphor for America, since it is one common element among so many different ethnicities) is both a blessing and a curse; as the image with which the novel leaves you so beautifully suggests, it is a fountain of possibilities, good and bad.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Worth Reading
I first read this book when I lived in Germany, written in german. I looked forward to reading it in English as it is always different in its original writing. Read more
Published 8 months ago by beannie
Short stories in one novel
Annie Proulx is a magnificent writer and no criticism can take that away. This book reads very much like a series of short stories tied together with the idea of the accordion... Read more
Published 22 months ago by marionq
Stunning
The story of an accordion - yes. But so much more...
The story of hope and expectation, of migration, of the cruel reality of being an outsider. Read more
The story of hope and expectation, of migration, of the cruel reality of being an outsider. Read more
Published on 30 May 2010 by E. A. Dobedoe
Downright difficult!
I was looking forward to this having loved both 'The Shipping News' and 'That Old Ace in the Hole', but I have to say, I really struggled with it from beginning to end. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2008 by Outsider
History of America through the eyes of a green accordian
This is a great book. Annie Proulx absorbs and describes detail like no one else, sometimes to a level that makes the reader cringe with the realism, often tinged with black... Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2004
A Polyglot of Characters Looking for a Plot
As a great fan of Proulx's 'The Shipping News', I looked forward to reading 'Accordion Crimes',. Somehow this convoluted tale of the accordion's progress seems contrived. Read more
Published on 17 July 2003 by A. C. SEARLE
Weird Wonderful & Hugely entertaining.
Could be retitled a million ways to kick the bucket!
Has any book ever described more (strange & crazy) ways to leave this earth than this superb novel? Read more
Has any book ever described more (strange & crazy) ways to leave this earth than this superb novel? Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2001 by Steve Gill
Boring and frustrating
The premise sounded interesting: following the accordian through a series of owners from all walks of life. But the characters were extremely uninteresting. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 1999
Interminable
I have been reading this book for months, am almost done with it, and I still don't know if I'll ever finish it, it is that uninteresting. Read more
Published on 21 Jun 1999
Tedious parade of horribles
A disappoininting, depressing book, chock full of every imaginable form of death and dismemberment. Proulx's fascination with the grotesque is numbing at first, but by book's end... Read more
Published on 9 Jun 1999
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