The Accordionist's Son
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Review
`a powerful drama'
--Daily Telegraph
--Daily Telegraph
Review
a graceful, thought-provoking novel
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
"Were we, he and I and our fellow [Basque] countrymen, the equivalent of the last Mohican?"
16 Mar 2009
Format:Hardcover
By the time he is eight years old, David Imaz, like his father, is an "artist" at his craft--a fine accordionist--growing up in the Basque community of Obaba, near Guernica. Forty-two years later, in 1999, the accordion is put away, and David's Basque friend Joseba is visiting David's widow Mary Ann, not in Basque country, but in Three Rivers, California, where David has been raising thoroughbred horses for more than twenty-five years. Mary Ann has a mission for Joseba--to take one of the three copies of a book that David has written in Basque back to the library in Obaba.
David's story includes his involvement in the history of his village, and it reveals important discoveries he made about other people, including some from his own family. Nine local people, thought to have been against the military dictatorship and sympathetic to the revolution, were executed at the outset of the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939), and David believes that his own father was involved in these executions.
David prefers the country life to life in town, and it is through his travels back and forth between town and country, that he eventually learns the true history of the town in the years before he was born. By June, 1970, David, aged 22, has finished his fourth year of university, and the political situation in his Basque homeland has seriously deteriorated. The bombing of a recently erected marble monument, created to honor the fascists who fought with Franco during the Civil War, brings the military to Obaba, at the same time that reform-minded college students from outside Obaba also arrive, setting up a final confrontation and bringing the novel full circle.
The Basque setting and the events of the Spanish Civil War, which drive the plot, are less important than the characters and the crises they face. As Atxaga recreates the culture, and the people who live within it, he also includes homey details, and the reader sees how much like the rest of us these people are, despite the obvious cultural differences. David and Joseba and their friends act like typical young boys, enjoying the same kinds of activities that children enjoy around the world, and when, as teenagers and youths in their early twenties, they become caught up in events, the results of which they cannot possibly foresee, the reader understands that they are naïve youths caught in a whirlwind that has taken their lives out of control.
As the author sprinkles moments of dark humor throughout the novel to offer relief from the violence and the seriousness of the main issues, he adds to the atmosphere and the sense of "rightness" of David's story. Written by one of the few novelists still writing in the Basque language, The Accordionist's Son is a novel of epic scope and broad social impact, a novel which grows for the reader because the author chooses to be honest about his characters, instead of molding them to the needs of his plot. n Mary Whipple
Obabakoak
David's story includes his involvement in the history of his village, and it reveals important discoveries he made about other people, including some from his own family. Nine local people, thought to have been against the military dictatorship and sympathetic to the revolution, were executed at the outset of the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939), and David believes that his own father was involved in these executions.
David prefers the country life to life in town, and it is through his travels back and forth between town and country, that he eventually learns the true history of the town in the years before he was born. By June, 1970, David, aged 22, has finished his fourth year of university, and the political situation in his Basque homeland has seriously deteriorated. The bombing of a recently erected marble monument, created to honor the fascists who fought with Franco during the Civil War, brings the military to Obaba, at the same time that reform-minded college students from outside Obaba also arrive, setting up a final confrontation and bringing the novel full circle.
The Basque setting and the events of the Spanish Civil War, which drive the plot, are less important than the characters and the crises they face. As Atxaga recreates the culture, and the people who live within it, he also includes homey details, and the reader sees how much like the rest of us these people are, despite the obvious cultural differences. David and Joseba and their friends act like typical young boys, enjoying the same kinds of activities that children enjoy around the world, and when, as teenagers and youths in their early twenties, they become caught up in events, the results of which they cannot possibly foresee, the reader understands that they are naïve youths caught in a whirlwind that has taken their lives out of control.
As the author sprinkles moments of dark humor throughout the novel to offer relief from the violence and the seriousness of the main issues, he adds to the atmosphere and the sense of "rightness" of David's story. Written by one of the few novelists still writing in the Basque language, The Accordionist's Son is a novel of epic scope and broad social impact, a novel which grows for the reader because the author chooses to be honest about his characters, instead of molding them to the needs of his plot. n Mary Whipple
Obabakoak
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was a birthday gift, no doubt purchased because I love Spain and am interested in it's history and culture. I rarely give up on a book and was especially reluctant to give up on this one as it was a gift and also because it offered some potential insights into Basque history etc. but I am sad to say that after 2 attempts I admit defeat, perhaps it is the translation that is lacking, but the characters have not come to life for me and the plot devices just don't work. I really wanted to enjoy and like this book but I can't
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I gave up with this too - something I almost never do. Poor characterisation, rambling storyline (if there is one at all) - all just too dull. I guess of interest if you are Basque?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Was it a horse or a man?
I loved `The Lone Man' and started this book with much anticipation. I visited the Basque country recently and this whetted my appetite. The first chapter was extremely promising. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2008 by M. K. Tomlinson
Could not put it down.
This book has continued to endear me to Spanish authors. Atxaga writes about friendship and betrayal with the Spanish civil war as well as the start of the Basque movement in the... Read more
Published on 3 May 2008 by Michael Mukasa
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