I wanted to like this book more than I did. I really liked the premise of it, but I found that it got to be tiresome after a while. The way it is set up, it's more of a collection of linked stories than a novel. I had contradictory feelings about this. On the one hand, the stories, after a while, all began to feel the same. They were all pretty depressing and full of down-on-their luck people, who, no matter where they were from, seemed very similar. Perhaps this is a commentary on the plight of immigrants in America, regardless of where they are from or when they arrived here, but it still started to feel monotonous partway into the book. On the other hand, while the stories were already so similiar in my opinion, I wanted to see more actual connections between them, something that linked them more than the accordian and their immigrant plights. I wanted characters from one "story" to appear in other "stories" on occasion, and thus provide a stronger connection between each individual unit of the novel. I do have to commend Proulx on her attention to detail. The amount of research that went into the story about the various cultures and places through a large span of time as well as in regards to music and the accordian in particular was very impressive.