Accordion Crimes

By: Annie Proulx

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

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, a voice for their fantasies, sorrows, and exuberance, but it too, is forced to change. Proulx's heartbreaking characters and daring storytelling which unite the sections of Accordion Crimes, make it a stunning novel, exhilarating in its scope and originality.©1996 E. Annie Proulx, All Rights Reserved (P)1996 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved

Great listen!

An excellent webbed story paralleling the history trail of an inanimate object. The tale weaves and connects characters and lives in a most intriguing way. Very enjoyable!

Deeply depressing

I wanted to like this book, I loved The Shipping News, but everytime a new character was introduced you just knew that sooner or later they would die a horrible death, or suffer agonies of defeat. The story was unrelenting. You came to dread meeting each new accordian owner, no matter how clever the introduction into the narrative by the author. On the plus side, I have never read/heard a more vivid and lyrical description of death by spider bite. Herrman is an excellent narrator

accordion crimes

As always, Annie Proulx has created memorable, quirky characters in Accordion Crimes. Her sense of the absudity and randomness of life is right on the mark! The reader does an excellent job of portraying a large series of characters. A real treat!