Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Monday, 1 November 1999

"Accordion Crimes" by E. Annie Proulx (Fourth Estate, 1996)

A day in the life of a penny. The stories all concern immigrants (or close offspring of) who are down on their luck. There is little if any interior monolog, and extensive description is reserved mostly for the accordions that provide a flexible symbol for cultural survival.

There's no suspense on the novel scale (indeed, it's unclear whether the linked stories justify being called a novel) but on a number of occasions we learn that something has happened (accordions stolen, arms sliced off), the details being conveyed to us a few pages later.

I liked the style - the dialog sounded authentic to me, the infrequent flights of lyricism successful, the telling phrases and word choices frequent.

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