I didn't think Shipping News quite the masterpiece some critics claimed it to be, but in its way it was an original novel and certainly well beyond the ordinary run of fiction. This book, however, is a relative disappointment and its basic idea or theme - a little two-button accordion brought to America by a Sicilian immigrant, which passes on through various hands - seems a strained and rather slight conceit. Still, novels (particularly contemporary novels) can survive a high level of artifice provided the writing itself is good and vivid enough. In this case, surprisingly, it is not; the quality of the prose varies too often from serviceable to slipshod. Perhaps it would not seem such a let-down if Proulx's previous novel had not geared us to a high level of expectation?
B.F.