Joel A reviewed Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx
Review of 'Accordion Crimes' on 'LibraryThing'
4 stars
An odd book, but it did draw me in. You follow a green accordion through more than a century, watching it pop up in an almost "where's Waldo" manner through stories of immigration, poverty, tragedy and an incredibly creative range of sorrows (death by spider bite, mistaken shooting of a prize horse, arms amputated by sheet metal coming off a truck, race riots, etc.). Then comes a story with something of a happy ending, and I was shocked by it. Then sorrow returns.returnreturnAn interesting juxtaposition with Adverbs, the last book I read. There the stories interlocked to explore the nature of love. Here the stories interlocked to explore the nature of tragedy. Yet the book was somehow enjoyable, because the tragedy was so picturesque and keenly delineated.
An odd book, but it did draw me in. You follow a green accordion through more than a century, watching it pop up in an almost "where's Waldo" manner through stories of immigration, poverty, tragedy and an incredibly creative range of sorrows (death by spider bite, mistaken shooting of a prize horse, arms amputated by sheet metal coming off a truck, race riots, etc.). Then comes a story with something of a happy ending, and I was shocked by it. Then sorrow returns.returnreturnAn interesting juxtaposition with Adverbs, the last book I read. There the stories interlocked to explore the nature of love. Here the stories interlocked to explore the nature of tragedy. Yet the book was somehow enjoyable, because the tragedy was so picturesque and keenly delineated.