(1996) was the novel that followed

to great acclaim. Critics had expressed worries that the spectacular success of

would be hard to live up to, but

confirmed Proulx's status as one of the best American writers of her generation. In some ways, this book combines Proulx's interest in both the novel and the story form. It is a novel in the sense that it is a long fictional narrative held together through its thematic unity, but at the same time it resembles a collection of stories in that it is made up of eight separate sections, each introducing new characters, but each also telling more than one story. What unites these fragments is the novel's protagonist, a green two-row button accordion. The novel begins in the…

1364 words

Citation: Varvogli, Aliki. "Accordion Crimes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6861, accessed 29 March 2025.]