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摘要
摘要
Author Keith Maillard received critical acclaim with his novel Gloria, which told the story of a young woman on the cusp of womanhood in a town called Raysburg, West Virginia. In his newest book, The Clarinet Polka, Maillard turns that same eagle-eyed attention to the other side of the tracks of that very same town and creates a stunning portrait of Polish America and of one man's struggle to find meaning in his life and roots.
The year is 1969, and young Jimmy Koprowski returns from his stint in the airforce to Raysburg, his blue-collar Polish American hometown where nothing much happens beyond working at the steel mill, going to Mass, and getting drunk at the local PAC. Jimmy's efforts at rebuilding his life result in sleeping off hangovers in his parents' attic and drifting into a destructive affair with a married woman.
But things change when his younger sister Linda decides to start an all-girl polka band, and Jimmy falls for the band's star clarinetist, Janice, whose young life is haunted by tragic events that happened before she was born. The threads of Jimmy's family life, the legacy of WWII Poland, and the healing power of music, language, and tradition all begin to converge.
At once gritty and compassionate, moving and witty, The Clarinet Polka showcases the emotional and perfectly pitched voice of a lost soul finding his way.
评论 (4)
出版社周刊评论
Maillard (Gloria) turns the spotlight on the Polish-American community in fictional Raysburg, W.Va., a steel town modeled after his native Wheeling and the setting for six of his previous novels. Discharged in 1969 after serving in Guam, noncombatant Vietnam-era vet Jimmy Koprowski returns to his parents' house and his old childhood bedroom ("the sloped ceiling is covered with all the Playboy centerfolds I taped up in high school, and if you can imagine anything more depressing than Miss November from 1960, then tell me about it"). He takes a job doing TV repairs for "a couple cents above minimum wage" and tries to readjust to the smallness of life in Raysburg, mainly through excessive boozing and sordid back-alley trysts. After an erotic encounter outside the local mall, Jimmy gets caught up in a messy affair with a neurotic society matron named Connie. The last straw for his jangled nerves comes when his 21-year-old sister, Linda, also living at home, decides to take up the trumpet and start an all-girl polka band. Jimmy finds himself playing chauffeur to 15-year-old clarinet virtuoso Janice Dluwiekis, the goody-two-shoes daughter of a prominent accountant and the star of Linda's band. The engrossing tale traces Jimmy's losing struggle to tame his drinking as his carnal obsession with Connie and his disturbing feelings for the innocent Janice spiral out of control. Jimmy is a wry, down-to-earth, irresistible narrator, and Maillard draws all the characters in the working-class community with compassion and obvious affection. This moving, well-drawn story of sin and redemption in a fading industry town may remind readers of Richard Russo. (Mar. 1) Forecast: A regional author tour will give The Clarinet Polka a local boost, but word of mouth and bookseller attention (both likely to be forthcoming) will be key in getting it noticed elsewhere. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
Vancouver-based Maillard returns to West Virginia, where he was born and bred, in this finely rendered account of a young man stranded in a hardscrabble mill town. Raysburg (the setting of Maillard's previous trilogy: Gloria, 2000, etc.) was a gritty place in the best of times-and the best of times were long over by 1969, when Jimmy Koprowski returned from the Army. He'd never got beyond Guam, where he repaired B-52s, so he's not one of your shell-shocked Vietnam vets, then, but he's still got problems. The steel mill in Rayburn closed down years ago and there's little for an ambitious young man to do. Jimmy gets a job repairing TVs, but what he really wants is to head out to Texas for work in the burgeoning aeronautics industry. It's not so easy to get away, though. Even if he had the cash to float himself for a few months (which he hasn't), he would feel held back by the presence of Old Bullet Head (his father), his kid sister Linda, and his friends from the neighborhood (most as aimless as he is). And, just as Jimmy is finally working up the nerve to break loose, a further complication develops in the person of Connie, a wealthy married woman from the other side of town. Jimmy and she begin a torrid, obsessive affair (as for how obsessive, they often have to resort to makeshift venues like the back of Jimmy's car for their trysts). Like many men in his stymied position, Jimmy is also drinking too much-way too much. But there's some light at the end of the tunnel, being shone by Janice Dluwiecki. A friend of his sister's, Janice starts out as an annoyance to Jimmy, but the two eventually fall in love. Can he get rid of Connie, stop drinking, and get on with his life? Old-fashioned, rich in detail and incident, a story of marvelous skill and poignancy: Maillard is a national treasure.
《书目》(Booklist)书评
In his seventh novel set in the fictional town of Raysburg, West Virginia, Maillard brings home the warmth of community in his heartfelt depiction of a depressed war vet who is saved by the red-hot music of an all-girl polka band. Jimmy Koprowski returns from his stint in the air force in 1969 consigned to his boyhood attic bedroom and a minimum-wage job at a TV repair shop. He drifts into an alcohol-fueled, sexually charged affair with a doctor's wife and engages in ongoing arguments about his "life plan" with his hardworking dad, whom he not so affectionately refers to as Old Bullet Head. Jimmy pretty much thinks that a couple fifths of Jack Daniel's and a case of beer will help him reintegrate himself into civilian life. Then his ethnomusicologist sister decides to start an all-girl polka band, and that's when he meets singer Janice Dluwiecki. Things suddenly start to look a whole lot brighter. Maillard invests Jimmy with a narrative voice so easy on the ears, you could listen to it for far longer than the book's length. This hilarious, often sentimental novel is ultimately a joyous, foot-stomping celebration of the human spirit, all the more special because it is presented in the unlikely guise of Jimmy Koprowski stepping right along to a terrific polka groove. Joanne Wilkinson
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Jimmy Koprowski seems like just another loser. Back home in Raysburg, WV, in 1969 after four years in the air force, he's mourning a buddy killed in Vietnam, drinking too much, working in a TV repair shop when he isn't too hung over, and sleeping with a sexy married woman he doesn't even much like. Then his younger sister, Linda, pulls him into her plans to form an all-girl polka band in their Polish American community. Jimmy is soon chauffeuring one of Linda's recruits, 15-year-old Janice Dluwiecki, a talented clarinetist whose blonde perfection is too much for his tastes. But as the two spend time together, Janice becomes infatuated, and Jimmy ends up falling in love with a teenager ten years his junior. To keep from touching her, he takes off, hitting bottom with booze before finally figuring out where he belongs. Maillard, who explored the country club set in Gloria, has once again written an absolutely captivating novel, this time a warm and wonderful story of reconciliation and redemption, chock-full of memorable characters and true to its time and place. In its portrayal of Polish Americans, it is also a celebration of heritage in general-but if you aren't at least part Polish, after reading this you may wish you were. Enthusiastically recommended for all fiction collections.-Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.