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The Accordionist's Son (2003)

by Bernardo Atxaga(Favorite Author)

3.57 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1555975178 (ISBN13: 9781555975173)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Graywolf Press

review 1: Internationally acclaimed Basque author Bernardo Atxaga is a poet as well as a novelist. His 2004 novel, "The Accordionist's Son", is, at one level, the coming-of-age story of David Imaz, a talented accordionist player in the footsteps of his father. The context, however, is different from many other comparable novels. Set in the remote village of Obaba, in the Basque country in northern Spain, the reader is quickly drawn into a vibrant community, torn into political factions, with families and neighbours pulled apart by ongoing hostilities and long-held secrets. Written originally in his own Basque language (Euskedi), Atxaga creates a world that is both specific in its depiction of the day-to-day reality while at the same time reaching beyond the specifics into the genera... morel in its subtle and perceptive evocation of human relations and our connection to land and nature. It is also an ode to an ancient language and a people's traditional culture, a loving, sometimes nostalgic look at the "past as a foreign country", exemplified by the peace and "happiness" of rural life. And as Atxaga expressed in an interview about a decade ago: "Obaba is an interior landscape [...] the country of my past, a mixture of the real and the emotional."The "Accordionist's Son" is, then, a very personal and intimate recollection of life growing up caught between the old and the new. David is so taken by the "old" that the "new" can take him by surprise or, worse, lead him into dangerous traps. He is a slow, often hesitant learner when it comes to the political baggage that is still hanging over the village, reaching back into the dark days of the Spanish Civil War, WWII and their fallout. Obaba is not far from the town of Guernica, the memory of the thousands killed very much on people's minds. David prefers the woods, the lake and his simpler village friends like Lubis who looks after his uncle's horses. But he cannot always avoid confronting reality: whether in conflicts with his father or some of his friends and love interests. The opposing political sides are increasingly forceful and eventually, David has to take sides.However, the novel opens with its ending. David had been working on his memoir, describing his youth back in the village and how his life led him, eventually, to California. Instead of him, we meet his wife Mary Ann and his childhood friend, Joseba; David has succumbed to his illness. Now, according to David's wishes it is up to Joseba, to translate his draft memoir, written in the Basque language, so that David's family can read it. He is also to take it back to Obaba to be placed in the library as a historical record of the struggle for the Basque Homeland. Joseba, a writer himself, "wanted to write a book based on what David had written, to rewrite and expand his memoir. [...] Not like someone pulling down a house and building a new one in its place, but in the spirit of someone finding a tree, on which some long-vanished shepherd had left a carving, and deciding to redraw the lines so as to bring out and enhance the drawing and the figures."Joseba/David writes with great fluidity and we can only seldom separate the voices of the two friends. In real life, it would be an intriguing experiment and one can only assume that Bernardo Atxaga sees himself in both his characters, well characterized within their separate identities, and yet intimately connected to each other through the experiences of youth and young adulthood. For me discovering Bernardo Atxaga through this novel has been an enriching experience that will lead me to read other books by him. His evocation of the lush landscape, forests and hidden lakes, makes for a very convincing, often lyrical, background for his story that does not shy away from the political tensions and the personal conflicts of the time. His ability to bring a diversity of characters to life - and there are quite a few - is remarkable and some of them stay in your mind long after you finished the book. Some readers might find some of the early passages of young David's teenage preoccupations too long, but these would be minor flaws. are quite a few - is remarkable and some of them stay in your mind long after you finished the book. Some readers might find some of the early passages of young David's teenage preoccupations too long, but these would be minor flaws.
review 2: What do you learn from this book? You learn about the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, about Guernica, about what drives those in Basque movement for independence and most of all about how what happens in history during a set time here 1936-1939 continues to change people and evets for years to come. The writer is also a poet and you see that in his writing, particularly when he describes, not people, but animals and landscapes and language. Yes, I did like how the author expresses himself. I also think he had imprtant things to say about the value of keeping uncommon languages. Each language retains the culture of the people. When the language disappears you loose part of that culture too.So why only two stars? The book is too complicated. You have two people writng about the same events and experiences and sometimes the reader doesn't know who is saying what! There are numerous characters and each have numerous names. I was often confused. I would start a chapter wondering who was talking, and only find out paragraphs later. And the author likes lists: lists of favorite people and people murdered and pretty girls. So what was the point of this focus on lists? I never figured it out. I learned how several characters experienced the the aftermath of Spanish Civil War. Through their parents you learned about the Spanish Civil War itself, but only from their own personal point of view. There aren't many historical facts to hang the story on. Usually I am MOST interested in knowing how people experienced an historical event, but for some reason I never grew attached to the characters' troubles, Their sorrows never became my sorrows. The time period covered is from childhood to adolescence to adult of a group consisting of about 10 people. I had a hard time making this transfer from different ages and between different characters, different places, switched names... Quite simply there was too much going on. I have the feeling others might like the "harshness" of the events, the depiction of confused adolescents and the mystery of who is writing what. I din't. less

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