Rating: 
Summary: It's all about the music
Review: I agree with the reader from Salt Lake City that the characters in this book are primarily vehicles for the accordion music that is at the heart of the story. As one who has loved all forms of American traditional music from the other end of the world, I was transported by this book. Ms Proulx's stories give each type of music a new life and meaning and offer a new perspective on the history of America's immigrants and races. The chapter in which the accordion is played in a zydeco band is absolutely wonderful - Clifton Chenier even makes an appearance (put on the Chenier collection "Zydeco Dynamite" while you read this chapter). This book serves as a timely counter to the shopping mall homogenization of music - use it as an opportunity to go back and discover real American music and understand its origins. Although many of the characters are seen as unpleasant by many readers, my reading was that they are neither good or bad, merely the victims of difficult curcumstances who are driven to find their true voice in music. And that is how each form of music began.The bonus is that Annie Proulx's descriptions are as drop-dead perfect as in all her books - the sense of place in each story is spot-on. If you like good American literature, read this and all Annie Proulx's books.
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Summary: An Interesting Idea That (Mostly) Works
Review: Enjoyed `The Shipping News' and so thought I would try more of E. Annie Proulx's work. Te idea behind this book, tracing the history of an accordion through the lives of its owners was a really interesting one and, in particular, seemed to allow Ms. Proulx to comment on the immigrant experience in America. Particularly telling is a passage not far from the end when, after we have seen much prejudice against all sorts of cultural groups during the novel, we read "it's not the same as when our grandparents come over; they were white, they had guts, a good work ethic". Unfortunately, it seems people will always find reasons to justify prejudice against another group. While the depictions of the lives of the people in this novel are quite vividly drawn, and often incredibly depressing as they try to adjust to the culture and circumstances around them, it does drag occasionally. Indeed, there are times when the accordion itself seems to go missing, which is frustrating. However, waiting for the revelation to occur which concludes the book kept me interested. I am glad I finished because, while it is a hard read, the ideas and the lives of the characters challenged me to think about my own life and attitudes. It will take some time, but ultimately it is worth the effort.
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Summary: A book of short stories which sum up the American experience
Review: In Accordion Crimes, Proulx wonderfully pulls together a cross-section of America for a hundred years to the present in interwoven short stories about the people whose lives intersect with a handmade accordion brought from Sicily to make its creator's fortune. The stories often end in the death of the current accordion owner which gives us in a dramatic way a sense that our own death will be as distinctively our own and as inevitable as the deaths of her characters. Instead of a great sentimentalized abstraction, Proulx shows that death is as ever-present as life, is the architect of life. In this book, even the accordion dies, slipping gracefully through its ages of usefulness, to disuse, to abandonment. This is a wonderful book and I recommend it to anyone who has been starved for REAL fiction as I have. Proulx is the real thing on a large scale. To those who were depressed by the book, I suggest taking a close look at their own lives because it seems to me they are wasting their time looking for meretricious comforts and have allowed their sensibilities to be lulled by too many soothing professional lies.
Rating: 
Summary: So anxious to read this - but gave up twice.
Review: Annie Proulx's "The Shipping News" is one of my favorite books. A story so sharply written that I've held simple phrases in my head for years - unforgettable. I was thrilled to hear about "Accordian Crimes" and even broke my wait-until-it's-in-paperback rule. Forked over the bucks for the hardcover and took an afternoon off from work to dive in. Well - such a laborious, dry, unengaging read that I put it down after about 100 (or was it 1000?) pages. Tried again weeks later, thinking I wasn't in the right frame of mind the first time. Again - that wall of boredom. Either I just wasn't getting it, or there isn't anything to get. Got FABULOUS reviews in my area papers - maybe it's just me! (Try her others: Heartsongs, Postcards, Close Range - all very good.) I'm so sorry, Ms. Proulx, but I gave it my best!
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and frustrating
Review: The premise sounded interesting: following the accordian through a series of owners from all walks of life. But the characters were extremely uninteresting. I didn't mind the book's darkness, as other reviewers did, because I really didn't care at all what happened to any of the characters, tragic or otherwise. But it's not enough that it's boring... Proulx' writing style is so frustrating. One paragraph might be a single sentence, going on and on, through myriad descriptive phrases, punctuated with endless commas, so that, by the end of the sentence, you have completely lost the point. Then the next paragaph is a collection of short thoughts. Single phrases. Broken into sentences. I was so distracted by the run-on sentences and the dramatic stylistic shifts, that what little empathy I might have mustered for any of the characters was totally lost.
Rating:
Summary: A complex and beautiful celebration of diversity.
Review: This novel is certainly not an easy read, but I think those who shrug it off as depressing and dreary are really missing a great deal of the meaining it has to offer. It may be true that many of the characters come to unpleasant ends, but they often also achieve some measure of happiness along the way. Proulx's message seems to be one of niether hope nor dispair, but rather of life-affirmation; for life is made of equal measures of both, and these characters, who experience so much of both, are vibrantly, powerfully alive. The accordian (which is a brilliant metaphor for America, since it is one common element among so many different ethnicities) is both a blessing and a curse; as the image with which the novel leaves you so beautifully suggests, it is a fountain of possibilities, good and bad.
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Summary: Dreary and misanthropic
Review: I have to admit that after reading this book I asked myself what might have happened to E. Annie Proulx between the time she wrote the wonderful, life-affirming "Shipping News" and the relentlessly dark "Accordian Crimes." Did some disaster befall her to change her view of the world and humanity? In "Shipping News" we met all kinds of people, both good and bad--some good but full of human foibles, some not so likable. They hurt each other; they make true human connections. Not so for most of the characters in "Accordian Crimes." Though of course to some extent the American Dream is a myth, I believe the true story of American immigration is much more complex and varied than the ugly tale that Proulx tells in "Accordian Crimes." I just read the positive review of Proulx's new book of short stories in The Washington Post. I think I'll wait and get the book out of the library rather than spend my money until I find out which Annie Proulx wrote this one.
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Summary: Interminable
Review: I have been reading this book for months, am almost done with it, and I still don't know if I'll ever finish it, it is that uninteresting. This author writes marvelous prose and I loved "The Shipping News", however, I have been totally unable to develop an interest in the characters, the accordion, the crimes; the total absence of humanity in any of these characters is remarkable. Should one become slightly interested in the fate of one of these families, it is too late, as they will be devastated by a weird calamity and that will be the end of them. This book was eminently putdownable.
Rating:
Summary: Tedious parade of horribles
Review: A disappoininting, depressing book, chock full of every imaginable form of death and dismemberment. Proulx's fascination with the grotesque is numbing at first, but by book's end it is merely laughable. The accordion is really not much more than a clever gimmick to "link" what might have worked as independent short stories. It is is hard to defend a novel about the immigrant expreince which is so devoid of humanity, love and faith. Proulx's version of American history is so drenched in blood, that all else, with the notable exception of some brilliant passages about the joy of music,is obscured. While it could be argued that it is refreshing not to encounter soft-hearted, sentimental ethnic stereotypes, it is disheartening that she still manages to paint the Poles as hard drinkers, the Mexicans as somewhat lazy and the Norweigans as repressed and cruel. The book's redeeming feature is her wonderful, lean prose. Proulx has described her writing as "muscular" and that it is. Better off reading the The Shipping News and call it a day.
Rating:
Summary: Good book- held my attention
Review: I enjoyed this book, but after reading The Shipping News, I found the same themes, and similar characters appearing. The story catches you up- and you do find yourself racing to finish, except at the end you don't necessarily come away feeling as ifyou have learned something. Still worth the money to while away the long winter's evenings!
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