The Clarinet Polka by Keith Maillard is Jimmy Koprowski's story. After serving a tour of duty during the Vietnam War, Jimmy returns home to the dying steel town of Raysburg, to the working class Polish-American neighborhood he grew up in. Despite being stationed on Guam for the duration, Jimmy still thinks he deserves a little break before getting started with his life. So he moves back into his attic bedroom, takes the job his father finds for him of working part-time at a small appliance repair shop and begins drinking in earnest. He has plans to go to Texas, but never quite gets going. He ends up involved in an unhealthy affair with an unstable married woman, and in his sister's attempts to put together an all-girl polka band.

This novel is rich with details about Polish-American life; from the food and the language, to the church and the history of the immigrants who settled in this corner of West Virginia, against the Oho river, and worked in the steel mills. One of the girls in the band has parents who were DPs, and the novel explores how this new wave of Polish immigrants fit in with the second and third generation immigrants, as well as what happened in eastern Poland during the war. The Vietnam War, along with the student protests are also a large part of the novel, as well as how the returning vets readjusted to ordinary life.

The Clarinet Polka is dense with information, but it never bogs down. Jimmy is interested in this stuff, so he makes it interesting for the reader. I found myself enjoying pages about the history of polka music, to the point where I more than once had to listen to some of it. I still don't like it at all, but I enjoyed learning about it - which isn't something I thought I would ever say. And Jimmy's story is interesting, too. He's a likable guy, slowly being taken over by his addiction, which was beautifully handled in the novel. All in all, The Clarinet Polka is a book well worth the time spent reading it. ( )

Jimmy Kaprowski returns to his hometown of Raysburg, West Virginia following his deployment to Vietnam. He had never planned to return. Steel is the chief industry. There is a large Polish-American community. Unfortunately, I could not continue to read this book. It was one in which I did not feel a connection and the amount of profanity used by Jimmy and his friends was more than I was able to tolerate. I'm a little sad about this as I was really curious how he was going to incorporate the musical theme. At the point I abandoned it, we had earlier been introduced to Jimmy's sister who played piano well, loved polkas, and was learning to play trumpet. However, we had not been introduced to a clarinet player.

The setting for this book is Raysburg, West Virginia. It is the 1969, and Raysburg is home to dying steel mills and a huge Polish-American population. The narrarator of this story is Jimmy Koprowski, who is recently returned from serving a stint in the military. The Vietnam War is raging on, but Jimmy never made it farther than Guam. He is now "re-integrating" back into civilian life. Jimmy lives at home with his steelworker father, stay-at-home mother, and sister Linda, who has what appears to be a useless music degree. Jimmy drinks, works at a TV repair shop, and drinks some more. Linda is teaching herself to play the trumpet, and her dream is to form an all-girl polka band. To help her out, Jimmy agrees to be band manager and eventually falls for one the band members, the clarinet player. A "bad match," at least at that time, is putting it lightly. There are numerous themes running through this book that keep the reader on his/her toes: the Vietnam war, the Holocaust, the '60s culture, alcoholism, what is is to be Polish-American, Catholicism. There is a happy ending, but there are some very dark spots getting there. Highly recommended. ( )

Keith Maillard has a significant talent and literary style. I chose this book after reading "Gloria," and found it to be totally enthralling. I know nothing about Polish immigrants, the polka or blue-collar communities in W.V., but Keith Maillard made them very accessible. At the end of this book, I knew the characters well through Maillard's exquisite rendering of them through their interactions and relationships with Danny, the main character. Don't overlook Maillard when you are looking for an excellent book that will strike many poignant chords. ( )

Blogged the review at http://mielniczuk.wordpress.com/2006/09/21/the-clarinet-polka-keith-maillard/ ( )