Accordion Crimes
by E. Annie Proulx
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 762)
Read in April, 2008
I loved The Shipping News and was interested in seeing what else Annie Proulx had written. The writing is beautiful and there is a plethora of fascinating characters in Accordion Crimes. But even though music and the little green accordion tie each of the stories together, it felt more like a book of short stories than a cohesive novel.
I recommend reading each of the stories (or sections) in one sitting because I found myself losing track of characters -- she'll start a secti...more
I recommend reading each of the stories (or sections) in one sitting because I found myself losing track of characters -- she'll start a secti...more
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Read in February, 2007
One of my quirky if not embarrassing infatuations is accordions. I love them. Their music, their culture, their physical beauty... I love it all. So naturally I was pleasantly surprised to run across Accordion Crimes in the PCV lounge. The story follows the life of a little green button accordion. From its construction in a small rural village in Italy, it makes its way to the United States in the luggage of its immigrant owner. From there it’s passed through family, friends and pawn shops. I...more
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recommends it for:
accordion players and dirty old men
This book follows an instrument from person to person. Not so original. Except that she follows an accordian through the hands of U.S. immigrants. There's Italians, Poles, Mexicans, Irish, French Canadians, and others. Nice historical snapshot of what it might've been like to be an immigrant during different decades since 1900. Unsurprisingly everyone is subjected to racism/xenophobia. Some stories stick more than others, and at the end of each she gives you a snapshot of the future for e...more
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Read in December, 2007
This book is outrageously entertaining, each paragraph is an incredible short story in itself. Each sentence is packed with interesting anecdotes and outlandish descriptions. Annie Proulx created characters that continue to swim around in my imagination. This book follows the existence of a green acccordion hand-made with great care in the late 1800's in Italy as it crosses the ocean and passes through different hands, different eras and into the modern age. Because Annie Proulx is a historian w...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
People who like Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Longwinded and preoccupied with history. In other short stories and books Proulx proved herself a master at casting a compelling story before a meaningful historical backdrop. To me, when history takes precedence over story the writing suffers. That's what happens here. Proulx doesn't seem to care about her characters so much as the ambitious task she has set before her, which is to follow the peripatetic path of a simple green organetto for a hundred years.
Some of her plot twists are inter...more
Some of her plot twists are inter...more
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It's hard for me to say enough about Proulx. In this book, she follows an accordion as it changes hands and moves around the world. She tells the stories of the people who play it. The accordion as a "silent" narrator.
Again, the story is quintessentially American as it traces the immigrant journey Stateside...just the description of the accordion itself, in the beginning pages is enough for me to recommend the book.
I know that Proulx is sky, retiring, even reclusive (my favorit...more
Again, the story is quintessentially American as it traces the immigrant journey Stateside...just the description of the accordion itself, in the beginning pages is enough for me to recommend the book.
I know that Proulx is sky, retiring, even reclusive (my favorit...more
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Read in April, 2008
Sigh. I had such a hard time with "The Shipping News" -- god knows why I turned straiht to another Proulx novel. I think I was hoping I'd like this one more. But I just didn't. It was fine at first, although the characters and situations continually struck me as overdrawn. But what I disliked the most is that, so far as I can tell, it's more a collection of short stories rather than a coherent novel. Yes, there's the accordian in each section, but that's about it. And I really d...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
People who liked the book White Oleander and the film Antonia's Line.
Picked this up in a Panera, of all places, to read while I ate my lunch. It's one of those books that saturates you in the environment she(?)'s creating -- gorgeous language. Must grab it from the library/bookshop and finish it off.
Update:
This was *great*, until the gimmick wore off. She follows this green accordion as it is passed on from immigrant family to immigrant family and the dregs of north america, over the generations, leaving horrible deaths and hardship in its wake....more
Update:
This was *great*, until the gimmick wore off. She follows this green accordion as it is passed on from immigrant family to immigrant family and the dregs of north america, over the generations, leaving horrible deaths and hardship in its wake....more
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Read in December, 2007
I generally love Annie Proulx. But this is the first work I have had reservations about.
I really struggled with this book. I devoured the first 250 pages, but then hit a wall. It seemed like her exposition style changed, and all of a sudden I was getting lost. I could no longer keep the new characters straight and was just giving confused. After 2 solid attempts, I closed the book. I might go back to it later, but I just don't have the energy to figure out what was going on. But the fi...more
I really struggled with this book. I devoured the first 250 pages, but then hit a wall. It seemed like her exposition style changed, and all of a sudden I was getting lost. I could no longer keep the new characters straight and was just giving confused. After 2 solid attempts, I closed the book. I might go back to it later, but I just don't have the energy to figure out what was going on. But the fi...more
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Read in May, 2008
Proulx is undoubtedly a talented writer; however, I was put off by the overall tone of the novel. Proulx exposes the ugliness of immigrant poverty in America. While I don't doubt that these hardships existed for some of our ancestors and may still exist for immigrants today, I would like to see some nobility, some redeeming hope, amidst the darkness. I am led to wonder about Proulx's personal history as she presents most of her male characters as sexual deviants, cruel, lazy, and often mentally ...more
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Read in January, 2000
It's not really a book for people who enjoyed "The Shipping News" or "Brokeback Mountain"...OK I enjoyed them all, but they aren't the same thematically or stylistically. There is no time here for you to get comfortable with any of the characters, because the accordion just keeps moving on, but I think Proulx meant it that way. The stories are generally sad or uncomfortable and she wants us to stay off balance, which is a healthy thing for a person who reads for pleasure.
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Read in July, 2007
This book moved ever so slowly but I was sorry when it ended. It had become my companion. It is more like a series of short stories threaded together by a green accordian. The author has a way with words and it's obvious she did a lot of research for the book. It is rich with tales of various ethnic groups that make up the USA. It chronicles the sad stories of poverty, racism, discrimination, and hard luck but balances it with hope, hard work, determination, and color.
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ahhh I love Annie Proulx. she traces the life of individuals who somehow inherit a green accordion made in late 1800's italy. and though it sounds like a red-violin knock off, the focus is more on the people and the different challenges of each era and ethnic group. she has such a way of getting into the local culture, no matter if it's newfoundland, wyoming, middle america, or cajun louisiana. geography is an important component to writing, and she's got it nailed.
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A book that traces the history of a little diatonic button accordion through the people that used it. I enjoyed "The Shipping News," and thought that this might be a clever story. I was more than a little disappointed. This depressing little history had a lot of squalor, a lot of grime--and through it all, the urge to make music...NOPE. More like if there is a little kid in the vignette, he/she is going to be either neglected, physically abused or sexually molested.
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Very disappointing. This book's main character is the accordian whose whereabouts the novel follows through magical and strange circumstances. The character development was lacking and the story was hard to follow. One of those books one has to force oneself to finish.
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Read in July, 2008
Half a year after starting, I have finished it: eight overwhelming, disturbing - and intricately planned - stories, loosely woven together around a single object.
I prefer to read dark, unhappy, earthy stories; nevertheless Prouxl succeeded in unnerving even me with Accordion Crimes. Too many times I have woken up in the middle of the night with a nightmare tinged by something I had recently read in the book.
I prefer to read dark, unhappy, earthy stories; nevertheless Prouxl succeeded in unnerving even me with Accordion Crimes. Too many times I have woken up in the middle of the night with a nightmare tinged by something I had recently read in the book.
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Read in June, 2008
(actually read it, not listened to CD; the book did not turn up on the search) The "densest" book I've ever read. Called a novel, but was a series of short stories linked by a green accordian that passed from one family to another across the century and the North American continent.
Interesting, but slow reading - every sentence long and totally packed with thoughts, descriptions, tangents, side/future/back tracks.
Interesting, but slow reading - every sentence long and totally packed with thoughts, descriptions, tangents, side/future/back tracks.
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Read in May, 2008
I read this book my junior year of college, but I was also reading four other books for four other classes and working 40 hours a week for the Heights and the CTRC, so I didn't get the chance to really enjoy it (or even finish it). Now I'm not rushing through it, I can't believe how amazing Annie Proulx' writing is. This is such a unique book, but I know it's a book that people will either really love or really hate.
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Almost a collection of short stories, these tales are weaved around the travels of an accordion that makes its way in and out of ethnic cultures in the United States. Proulx's vast knowledge of location and identity, as well as her facility with dialects and dialogues, makes this book a veritable historical survey of the United States intertwined with the important role music plays in identity and memory.
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Read in January, 1997
recommends it for:
I am not sure!
I LOVED this book. At the time that I read it, everyone else I know who tried to read it, hated it. My mother in law said she couldn't read it because the people in it were all "horrible". My brother in law, husband, sister and co-worker all said they just couldn't get into it, and didn't finish it. Now I see my friend Katie gave it 5 stars. I knew we were kindred spirits!
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